Hoping For A Better Tomorrow
by mulierositas
Summary: On a shared vacation to San Francisco three couples suddenly get caught in what seems to be a zombie outbreak. This is the story of their battle to survive and struggle to find a safe place to stay (Santana and Rachel are not one of the starter couples, but Pezberry is the endgame couple in this story)
1. Chapter 1

**Pairings:** Brittana, Finchel and Klaine are the starter couples. Pezberry starts out as friendship, but it's the endgame couple (If you ship one or more of the three first couples, you should probably read the warnings for the whole story)

**Warnings:**

**For the whole story: **This story is labelled M for a reason, it contains several major character deaths – You have been warned!

**For chapter 1:** Major character death, cursing and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Glee, The Walking Dead or Left 4 Dead. I have never been to San Francisco or The French Laundry and I have never tasted chef Thomas Keller's food.

**A/N:** This is my first story. I honestly tried to write something fluffy, but my crazy mind gave me this instead. This story is posted for the Pezberry Week Day 7: Free day on Tumblr.

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English. I haven't stepped inside an English classroom in ages, so there is bound to be mistakes, but I have tried my best.

I have for the most parts only seen Santana's scenes in season three and four of Glee. So therefore I have written a little pre-story to point out the AU parts and the starter couples history after high school in this universe.

* * *

**Pre-Story **

Brittana, Finchel and Klaine didn't break up after high school and have stayed together ever since then.

Santana's outing wasn't received as well by her closest family and she was thrown out by her very conservative catholic father. She went to Louisville and attended university there for a year till Brittany graduated and then they moved to New York. In NY Santana studied law and Brittany tried to get work as a dancer, but she never seemed to make it. It was only when Rachel contacted her years later, after she became a success on Broadway, that Brittany made it. Now Santana is a successful lawyer and Brittany is constantly touring as a well-known dancer for famous singers.

Rachel moved to New York where she later on made it on Broadway. She befriended Brittany and Santana, when she helped Brittany get a job as a dancer in the play Rachel was in. Rachel is still engaged to Finn, who joined the army after high school and didn't drop out. He has since been on several missions overseas and is currently on a leave from his mission in Afghanistan.

Since both Rachel's and Santana's partners travel so much they have become really close friends, because neither of them like to be so much alone. Their best friends, even if Santana never would admit that to anyone.

Kurt never went to New York, he stayed in Lima till Blaine graduated and then they moved to Chicago - More of their story in Chapter 1 -

This story takes place around ten years after Santana, Rachel, Kurt and Finn graduated from high school. So they are all around 28 – 30 years old when this story begins on their last day of vacation in San Francisco.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"This is a really excellent restaurant Kurt, how did you manage to get us a table today?" Rachel looked over to the other side of the dining table and saw a smug looking Kurt. He was about to answer her question when he got interrupted by his husband Blaine.

"When you and Kurt started to plan this trip, the first thing he did was to call this place. He made sure that we would get a table for when we came to San Francisco." Rachel looked stunned.

"But that was over six months ago and neither of us could agree on where to go before last month!"

"I think Kurt tricked us all into going to where he wanted, didn't you Lady Lips?" Santana smirked at Kurt. "I'm actually a little impressed that you even fooled Berry." Kurt, who had been looking irritated at Blaine since the moment he stole his thunder, turned to face Santana.

"Well, thank you Santana. I'm actually quite proud of myself for pulling this off. I have been dying to come to this restaurant for ages, because I have always wanted to try the famous chef Keller's delicious cuisines. So when Rachel suggested that we all should take a vacation together. I knew that we had to come to San Francisco, so I could finally visit the renowned _French Laundry_ in Napa Valley." He then turned to Blaine "And you know that I had to make reservations as fast as possible. The waiting list is at least two months long to get inside these doors, so I had to plan ahead." Rachel looked shocked.

"Kurt Hummel how dare you try to trick me!" Kurt actually flinched and looked a little bit frightened by Rachel's outburst, but quickly relaxed when Rachel smiled. "I'll forgive you this time, because this food is really exquisite. It's almost good enough to die for and I'm really impressed by the vegan selection they have to offer." Rachel was nearly moaning in delight as she took another bite of her food. Kurt smiled in relief.

"I made sure that they had something for my favorite lady to eat. Chef Keller was really forthcoming when I told him that you only ate vegan food. He even made some special dishes just for you."

"Yeah it's really funny what money can buy." Santana looked at Rachel's rabbit food and made a disgusted grimace. She had never understood how Rachel could survive without meat.

"Oh, hush Sweetie. I think Kurt and Blaine are super nice for treating us to this awesome meal."

"I agree with Brittany. This had to cost you guys a fortune and there's not even other dinners in here." Finn was gesturing around the beautiful intimate dinning room.

"There are probably some other dinners elsewhere in the restaurant, but I reserved a private dinning room for us all. It did cost a little bit more, but as I like to say: only the best is good enough for my friends." Kurt smiled at them all. "Everything in here from the menu and drinks to the decorations and gifts has been meticulously planned by me for months in advance."

"Oh, there's presents! Where?" Santana turned her head frantically around to try to find her gift. Rachel slapped her on the arm.

"Really Santana! That's what you chose to focus on?" She turned back to Kurt. "Everything looks really lovely Kurt and taste even better. You have outdone yourself this time. I suggest a toast to Kurt-" she turned towards Blaine "and Blaine for giving us this unforgettable experience. This is something we will cherish for the rest of our lives!" She lifted her glass and was greeted with a crescendo of "Hear, Hear!" and "I'll toast to that!" from the others in the room.

They continued to enjoyed their meals while Kurt, after he humbly thanked them for appreciating his gesture (as humble as only he could get), told them about how he considered this as a little celebration of his and Blaine's business expansion. Since Brittany and Finn hadn't heard anything about it yet, Kurt happily started to tell them his and Blaine's whole story from the beginning. Santana only tolerated hearing that story again, for the hundred time, since he had bought her the best meal she had ever tasted in her whole life.

"You see after I had to stay in Lima because of my failed audition to NYADA and YES I still think that lady was blind and tone-deaf!" Most of the people in the dinning room just smiled at that. Kurt ignored them all and continued on. "I tried to improve my grades and extra curricular activities to get in the next year, but when that didn't pay off I went with Blaine to Chicago. I studied fashion design while Blaine studied business."

Then he kept ranting on about how they had later successfully opened a little fashion boutique in Chicago and that they were now opening their third _Porcelain Fashion Boutique_, this time in Washington. Santana only half listened to his yapping, she chose to concentrate on her food instead. Kurt didn't seem to notice her disinterest and he continued telling them that the new opening of their store was in three months.

Blaine briefly interrupted Kurt's speech to explained that his husband had been reluctant to take this vacation at all. Still he had managed to convinced Kurt that Tina, who they had hired to run their store in Washington, was capable at keeping everything under control till they got back. So here they were and as much as Kurt had loved this trip to San Francisco, he was really looking forward to getting back to Washington to check up on the preparations for their grand opening.

At this point in the story, Santana was enjoying her dessert. She thought to herself that she probably could have eaten a ton of her feijoa sorbet, but after all those previously courses she had been given, she was really stuffed. Right now she had concluded that she freaking loved Kurt, but she wasn't going to tell him that. Later when she got her parting gift with neatly wrapped macarons, that tasted awesome! She surprised herself and Kurt, when she hugged him and told him that this had been one of the best days she had experienced in a long time. She later blamed it on having a food high.

After dinner they all decided to take a last trip out on the town, since everybody wanted to have some much-needed fun before heading back to their busy lives. Several hours later they were all on their way back to the rental car, which had already been packed for their departure to the airport early the next day, to drive back to their hotel. The six of them were almost at the car when Brittany, who was dragging behind the others, tried to get Santana's attention.

"Santana why didn't you tell me that there's a carnival in town. You know how much I love carnivals. Oh, I want to be a duck!" Santana, who had been talking to Rachel, turned around to check what her girlfriend wanted.

"Did you say something Britt?"

All Santana could see in the dimly lit street was Brittany standing in the middle of the road, looking at a group of people that had gathered around her. For some unknown reason she suddenly got this awful felling in the pit of her stomach and she didn't know why, but she cried out. "RUN Brittany!" but it was too late. To her horror she saw one of the guys getting a hold of her girlfriend and then he bit her in the neck, before the rest of them attacked her too. Santana immediately started to run towards Brittany to try to save her, but she didn't get far. Before she knew it she had been tackled to the ground. She desperately tried to get up, but she was being pined down by someone. "Let me go. I need to save Britt." She knew she was begging and she never begged, but she had to get to Brittany before it was too late. It didn't make it better that all she could hear was her girlfriend screaming in pain.

"I'm not letting you go Santana, so stop fighting me!"

Rachel! Rachel was the one holding her down. Well then she had to get her off, she had to save Brittany. Santana chose to ignore the fact that she couldn't hear her girlfriend screaming out her name anymore, because the silence scared her even more. So instead she started struggling harder and desperately tried to buck Rachel off her back.

"Stop Santana! We need to get back to the car."

Rachel was pleading with her, but all Santana could think about was Brittany's wide frightened eyes, before she got bitten. All she wanted was to save her girlfriend and she wouldn't let Rachel stop her. That was the last thing she could remember, before she felt an excruciating pain in the back of her head and everything went black.

* * *

Santana woke up the next day with a splitting headache, which was a little bit surprising to her since she really didn't remember drinking that much last night. She tried to open her eyes, but everything hurt like a bitch! She groaned in pain and decided to wait a little while longer, before she tried again. Her brain was hazy and all she could remember at the moment was that she had a horrible nightmare, where Brittany had been attacked by someone and she couldn't save her. What the fuck was that all about! She never had nightmares. She pushed the dream to the back of her mind and tried to sit up, but quickly changed her mind when she felt her head start to spin. She groaned in pain and muttered out. "I'm never going to drink ever again!"

Santana tried to open her eyes for the second time and after some lazy blinking, she could barely make out the contours of the room she was in. When her eyesight finally adjusted to the bright sunlight that was flooding the room, her heart rate suddenly sky-rocketed. She frantically turned her head around to take in her surroundings. She wasn't in her hotel room and Brittany wasn't laying beside her in their bed. Santana suddenly felt the need to throw up and she hurriedly reached a hand up to steady her pounding head. Her panic only grew when her hand bumped against the bandage that was wrapped around her head.

As fast as she could she got up from the bed and managed, on her slightly wobbly feet, to get to the bedroom door. She opened it and carefully peered out into the hallway. She didn't see anyone, but she could make out some faint voices coming from the floor below. Hesitating for only a second, she quietly started walking towards the stairs. The closer she got the clearer she could make out the voices. When she recognized Blaine's scruffy voice, relief flooded over her. Maybe everything was okay, maybe she just had a little bit too much to drink last night and had just passed out. At least that was what she desperately tried to convince herself of. She sped up and hurried down the stairs and rounded the corner to walk into, what looked to be, a living room.

When she entered the room Kurt, who was now talking, noticed her and stopped. The rest of the people in the room turned to find out what he was looking at. Santana quickly scanned the room, everyone were there excepted Brittany. She felt her heart start beating like crazy in her chest and when she saw the mournful expressions on her friends faces, her world felt like it came crashing down on top of her, when she understood that her nightmare hadn't been a dream after all. She didn't know what she wanted to do most: cry, laugh, die or kill. She settled for the last opinion, when Rachel started to speak.

"Santana I'm so sorry."

"Not as sorry as you're going to be after I'm finished with you!" Was the only warning Rachel got, before Santana tackled her to the floor. She probably would have killed her, if Finn hadn't grabbed her and lifted her up and away from Rachel. "Let me go! She deserves to die. She stopped me from saving Britt. Let go of me, you idiot!"

"Santana do you really think that I'm gonna let you kill my fiancé, I'm not that stupid! I'm only letting you go when you have calmed down and just so you know, if Rachel hadn't stopped you yesterday, you would have been killed too." Santana stopped struggling against Finn's tight grip.

"Maybe I don't want to live if Brittany isn't alive." At that, Finn let her go and Santana sank down to the floor.

"You don't really mean that, you're just in shock." Kurt tried to sound convincing, but his voice was trembling. Santana quickly stood up and was looking at Rachel with an accusing stare.

"You shouldn't have stopped me! Now I don't have anything to live for. I just want to die."

Rachel, who had been trying to stop the bleeding from her split lip and listen to Santana's self pitting at the same time, had apparently had enough of being unjustifiably attacked and slapped Santana across her face. Kurt gasped and the rest looked shocked, even Santana couldn't believe what had just happened.

"What is wrong with you! I lost my girlfriend and you just hit me!" That was the last drop and Rachel screamed back at Santana.

"Really Santana, really! Are you serious? If you haven't noticed something is horribly wrong and you are whining like a little baby. Yesterday we all saw someone taking a big bite out of Brittany's neck. If I hadn't stopped you, those things would have killed you too. I were forced to hit you in the head to get you away from them. They were coming towards us and you wouldn't stop fighting me, we barely made it to the car alive. We would both have been dead by now if Finn, Blaine and Kurt hadn't helped me, carry you to the car. You didn't see what we saw. Those monsters were killing people in the streets and eating them! People were running around screaming with blood all over them, it was total chaos! We were lucky to get out of the city alive. It was almost impossible to get away, because the streets were filled with people running for their life or being killed by those things. So you better shut up and be grateful that I saved you!" Rachel exhaled and her facial features softened.

"I'm truly sorry that Brittany died, she was one of my closest friends and you know that. I do realize that you're probably in a state of shock right now. So I'm sorry for slapping you, but this is not the time for a breakdown." She gestured to the other three people in the room. "We have been trying to find out what we are going to do. Before you came down we were discussing possible explanation to what ever it was that happened yesterday. So far the only thing we have come up with is that those things that attacked Brittany had to be zombies."

Santana, who had been quiet the whole time Rachel had been rambling, stopped rubbing her left cheek. She looked, with disbelief written all over her face, at Rachel and then at the others in the room.

"Zombies? ZOMBIES! What the fuck have you guys been smoking?!" Rachel huffed in indignation.

"Well do you have a better explanation Santana? They were eating people!"

"I don't know, maybe they were cannibals?"

"Seriously Santana do you really believe that's a more likely explanation?"

"But zombies? That's just something you find in movies or on TV. It's just made up!"

The whole time this argument had been going on, Blaine had been trying to get the TV in the living room to work. They had all tried, but it still wouldn't turn on. Blaine was the only one that hadn't given up. After a lot of button pushing, he got lucky and pushed the right combination and the TV came to life. Now he had to scream to drown out Santana's and Rachel's bickering.

"Guys, GUYS! I did it, it's working. The TV's working!"

He was smiling like a little kid that had gotten what he wanted for his birthday, but that didn't last long when he saw his friends shocked faces as they looked at the TV. Blaine quickly turned around to watch the screen too and his smile varnished immediately. It was no wonder they were shocked, because the TV screen was showing flickering images of countless body bags and dead bodies spread everywhere. Blaine turned up the sound.

The TV reporters were currently explaining how a severe case of an highly deadly type of swine flu, had spread across the country and apparently also the rest of the world. Some places were more affected than others, but the situation was now under control. Still just to be on the safe side both _The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)_ and _The American Public Health Association (APHA)_, were highly recommending everybody in America to stay inside their homes, to prevent them from possibly being infected. The government had also called in every branch of the military to get the situation under control. The reporters then started talking about something else and Blaine muted the TV and turned around to look at his friends.

"Do you guys think this is just an outbreak of swine flu?" Kurt had started passing back and forth and was obviously contemplating.

"No way! People don't start attacking and eating human flesh because their infected by some type of flu! They are clearly covering up something." Finn quickly got up from the couch and pointed at Kurt rather angrily.

"Wait a minute! You don't know that. Maybe they just don't want to cause a panic. The government have after all called in every branch of our military, so I think this situation is under control. This is not one of your crazy conspiracy theories!"

"Finn you work for the government. So I won't blame you for not wanting to badmouth your employer, but do you really believe that this is just a case of a flu gone wrong?"

"I don't know, but I like Santana don't believe in zombies!"

"HEY! Don't you drag me into this. I'm not on your side G.I. Giant. I don't trust the government as much as you do and this is not a case of the flu!" Finn gave Santana a pathetic glare, but didn't say anything more. Kurt sighed.

"Believe whatever you want, but at least the majority in this house believes that we are under a zombie attack." Kurt turned around and looked at Blaine and Rachel. "So what do we know about zombies? We should gather as much information as we can, to be sure to survive those monsters."

"Hold up, hold up! Before you freaks start this pointless discussion, I want to know where we are and how we got here. Cause you know I for once don't remember getting here, since the Hobbit so rudely clubbed me down." Rachel turned towards Santana and huffed.

"Could you please stop complaining. I saved your life yesterday and I'm almost starting to regret it." It looked like Santana was going to attack her again, so Rachel hurried to continue.

"As I were trying to explain before you interrupted me earlier, was that we had to get away from those things that were trying to kill us. So we all decided to get out of the city, because they were everywhere and we only stopped here since the rental car ran out of gas. Our only option was to park right outside this house. We tried to see if there were anybody home, but when nobody answered Finn used his excellent military training to get us into this house."

"He only climbed up to the second floor, to get through the open window." Blaine mumbled out, but everyone heard it. Rachel continued her story, ignoring Blaine's comment.

"So we tried to call for a tow truck to get some help, but our cellphones doesn't seem to be working. The most likely explanation is that the cellphone network is down. So that should sum up why we're in this empty house."

"So what you're saying is that I'm stranded here in the middle of nowhere, with you guys and nobody is coming to save us?"

Santana looked like she wanted to strangle someone. Rachel was wise enough to take a step back and use Finn as a human shield, just in case Santana decided to go all Lima Heights Adjacent on her ass again. She really didn't want to lose more blood.

Santana felt the beginning of a major headache and she was trying to massage it away with her fingers. She really hoped this was just a nightmare and that she would wake up soon, in her own bed laying safely in Brittany's arms. She wanted to kill someone, preferably Rachel, but she was too exhausted. So she just gave up and sank down in one of the comfy looking living room chairs and buried her head in her hands. Everyone in the room relaxed and Kurt clapped his hands together.

"Okay! Since that has been settled. What do we know about zombies?"

Rachel, Blaine and Kurt started talking amongst themselves and Rachel was eagerly scribbling down whatever they came up with on a notepad. The result was rather meager. To be perfectly honest none of them particularly liked watching anything with zombies in it. Because as far as they knew, there still hadn't been made a musical with singing zombies, so that meant that they didn't know much at all.

They tried to get Finn and Santana to participate, but Finn said the closest thing he had ever come to zombies was playing _Left 4 Dead_ with Puck. So the only thing he contributed with was "Kill all sons of bitches!" Kurt didn't know what that meant, but it was probably the best advice they had come up with so far. Finn had then smiled and mumbled a quiet, "I miss Puckerman, he was a good guy." before he went back to staring a hole in the living room wall.

So Kurt had turned to Santana and asked her to tell them what she knew, but she had shaken her head and told them that she didn't watch crap like that. When Kurt hadn't taken no for an answer and kept pushing, Santana had snapped and shouted that "Brittany didn't like scary things and she didn't want me to watch it either. So I didn't!" Kurt could see her eyes glazing over when she mentioned Brittany's name. Then she had humorlessly laughed out "But if we get attacked by Disney princesses, then I can save us all." After that she had sunk back into the chair and closed her eyes. When they didn't get anything else, Rachel had stood up.

"Well we're clearly stuck and I need something to drink. I'm just going to get some water from the kitchen." That was the moment Santana had come back to life, from her dream state. She looked visibly frightened at Rachel.

"Are you sure that's such a good idea? How do you know if the water's still clean? Maybe we should go outside to make sure that the water well is secure?"

"Why shouldn't the water be clean Santana?" Blaine, who had been watching the TV for an update on the so-called flu attack, turned his head away from the TV and looked at Santana.

"No particular reason." Santana desperately tried to avert her eyes away from Blaine.

"Ha! I knew you were lying."

"What is going on Blaine?" Rachel hadn't moved an inch, since Santana had stopped her. She was still thirsty, but now she was a little bit afraid to get something to drink.

"Well Santana has clearly watched _The Walking Dead_ and knows more about zombies than she led us to believe!" Blaine looked triumphant and was waiting for the others to react, but they all looked like big question marks. He sighed.

"_The Walking Dead_ was a zombie TV series on _AMC_. I didn't watch it myself, but Tina just loved that disgusting thing and she tried to get me and Kurt to watch it." Kurt nodded in recognition. Blaine continued his explanation.

"I remember this one time she told me about this scene, where they had to drag a zombie out of the water well, so he wouldn't contaminate the water, but when they pulled him up he split in two and all his intestines and guts spilled out and went down into the well and-"

"Thank you Blaine! I think that's more than enough." Blaine looked up at Rachel and then to Kurt. They were both holding their stomachs and they looked a little pale.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you guys sick. It's just that ever since Tina told me that story, it has been stuck in my head. I told her that she wasn't allowed to talk to either Kurt or me, about anything remotely bloody ever again. I even threatened that I would fire her if she did. She gave me nightmares for months after that story!"

"Ah, that explains why she hasn't tried to tell me any horror stories lately." Kurt smiled. "Thank you Honey."

"Your welcome." That led to an impromptu kissing session between the two of them, till Santana shouted.

"Stop that! You don't have to torture me to get me to tell the truth." The couple turned back to look at her and Kurt grimaced and gestured for Santana to start talking.

"Fine! You're all a bunch of assholes!" She looked down and mumbled out.

"As I said Brittany didn't want me to watch stuff like that, but you know me I like to get my way. So yeah I watched _The Walking Dead_ and some other things she wouldn't approve of, but that doesn't make me a bad girlfriend!" Santana was looking at everybody in the room, daring them to tell her otherwise.

"Of course not Santana, you were a great girlfriend. Brittany always told me so." Rachel was trying to assure the agitated girl, she really didn't want Santana to get angry again. "And I'm really touched that you wanted to keep me safe from harm." Rachel smiled.

"Don't flatter yourself. I just didn't want you to turn into a zombie and bite me."

"Thanks anyway. I appreciated it even if you did it for your own safety." Rachel smiled at her and then asked. "So what are we going to do about the water, do you think that it's safe enough to drink?"

"Well I'm not drinking it, before we have checked if there's something in the water."

"I thought you said, that you didn't believe in zombies Santana." Kurt hummed.

"I don't, but it's better to be on the safe side. I still don't want to get eaten by Berry."

Blaine quietly whispered "Wanky!" Luckily only Kurt heard it and he smiled, but he was glad Santana hadn't heard Blaine, she would probably have killed him.

"Then we just have to check the water. Like you said, there's probably a well outside somewhere." Rachel pointed towards the front door.

"Maybe Santana could go and see? She's the one who's too afraid to try the water." Finn was grinning at her.

"Then I vote for your girlfriend to drink first." Santana shot back and Finn stopped smiling. He was about to say something back, but was stopped by Kurt.

"Calm down you two. Why don't you guys and Rachel all go and see if you can find the well?"

"Fine!" Santana spat out.

"If she goes, I'll go with her!" Finn was pointing at Rachel.

"That would be lovely." Rachel smiled back at him. The three of them walked to the front door and Finn opened it and they all peeked out.

"See, there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Then you can go first Santana."

"Hey! You're supposed to be the one who protects our country. So start protecting! You're not supposed to send a lady first!"

"And when did you start being a lady?" Finn exclaimed. Santana was about to go all Lima Heights on his ass, when Rachel stopped their fighting. She hissed out in anger at their loud shouting.

"Could you two be quiet! I know you're not believers, but I don't want to die. I haven't met Barbra Streisand yet, so shut up!" They both quiet down, but Santana still managed to mutter out "Whipped!" to Finn, who mumbled "Fuck you!" back. Before they both completely stopped, when Rachel send them a deadly glare that would have frightened even the dead.

The three of them made it to the backyard without any more problems, they didn't even see anything suspiciously looking on their way there. Finn was the one who found the well, it was hidden behind some tall Oak trees, in the far corner of the garden. The well was covered by a fairly big stone and when Finn tried to push it away, he couldn't even seem to be able to move it an inch. Which made Santana smile with glee and that agitated Finn even more, but this time Blaine was the one to stop them from killing each other. He was calling from the living room window, that they had to hurry up and get back inside.

Unconsciously they all started looking around to see if there were any dangers near by, but they still couldn't see anything. So they quickly started to power jog back to get inside the house, while they desperately tried not to panic too much. When they finally reached the front door, they were all breathing heavily. Finn flung the front door open and they all rushed inside the house.


	2. Chapter 2

**Warnings for chapter 2: **Cursing, Violence, War memories and a Finchel kiss.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Glee.

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Finn, Rachel and Santana ran into the living room and found Kurt and Blaine sitting in front of the TV.

"Wh-what is it B-" Rachel puffed out, but Kurt cut her off.

"Hush, look!" He pointed to the TV and Blaine turned the volume up.

On the screen the reporters were telling everybody that those who had taken this years influenza vaccine, were asked to report to the nearest government facility. For their troubles they would be compensated by the government. Kurt frowned.

"That's strange. Why would they need to talk to the ones who have taken the flu shot, shouldn't they be talking to the people who haven't gotten the vaccine? They're the ones who can get infected by this so-called flu." He shook his head. "This just keeps getting weirder by the second."

Rachel wasn't listening to Kurt at all, she had instead turned to look at Finn. She quietly mumble out. "Didn't you-" but she quickly stopped when he silently shook his head to shut her up.

"Did you say something Rachel?" She hurriedly turned around to look at Kurt.

"No Kurt I didn't."

"Okay, I were just wondered if you guys had taken the vaccine?" Rachel shook her head.

"No, I didn't want to take it. I was too afraid that it would damage me vocal cords. Did you take it?" She desperately tried to sound unaffected.

"No, like I said before you distracted me, Blaine and I were going to take it last month, but we had to reschedule it because we were too busy with the new store in Washington." Kurt then turned to look at Santana. "Did you take it Santana?"

"What me? No I didn't. I felt that it was a waste of money. I never get sick, so I didn't see the point." Kurt turned back around and looked at his stepbrother.

"So Finn how about you? Doesn't everybody have to take the flu vaccine in the military?"

Rachel tried to look calm and collected, when Kurt asked her fiancé the question that she unfortunately already knew the answer to. What she didn't see was that Santana was staring at her, with a questioning look.

"No, I haven't taken it yet, my platoon didn't get the vaccine before our leave. I'm supposed to get it, when we get back after the break."

Rachel watched Finn calmly lie to Kurt and she tried to act as unaffected as Finn, but her heart was beating so fast that she was afraid that she was having a heart attack. Kurt seemed satisfied with Finn's answer and turned back to watch the TV again. Rachel cleared her throat and looked directly at Finn.

"I think we should make something to eat, it's getting late and we are probably all hungry. Finn can you help me?" Rachel needed to talk to Finn and this was the perfect excuse to get him alone and away from the others. Finn hesitated.

"Yeah sure, but you know I'm no good at making food. You did ban me from ever making dinner again, after that time where I made you eat meat." Rachel wanted to scream. Finn actually thought that they were going to make dinner, when all she needed was to talk to him.

"I know that Finny. I just need some help setting the table." She was desperately trying not to shout at him, to just get into the kitchen this instant.

"Oh okay, that I can do." Finn smiled.

Santana was still looking at Rachel, as they left to make everybody something to eat. She had noticed earlier that Rachel had seemed extremely anxious when Kurt was talking with Finn. Then she had started to behave a little bit strange, like asking Finn to help her in the kitchen and then she had proceeded to call him Finny. As far as Santana knew Rachel only called Finn that, when she was upset or angry with him. Something was up with Rachel and Santana decided that she was going to have to watch her more closely from now on. She was still mad at Rachel for not letting her save Brittany. It really didn't matter that she knew, in the back of her mind, that it wasn't Rachel's fault that Brittany was dead. She just needed someone else, beside herself, to blame for losing her girlfriend.

Santana just wished that it could have been someone else instead of Brittany, she herself would have gladly died to keep her girlfriend alive. All she really wanted to do right now was to lay down and cry for the rest of her life, but she also knew how much Brittany had loved Rachel. She had always demanded that Santana should look after Rachel, especially if Brittany wasn't there to do it herself. So Santana knew that she had to watch out for Rachel, her girlfriend would have wanted her to protect her.

Sure none of them had been what you could call friends in high school, but when Rachel had pulled some strings to get Brittany a dancing job in her Broadway play, the three women had reconnected. Brittany had even adopted Rachel as part of her and Santana's family and the two of them had become best friends, but as Brittany told Santana: "Don't be jealous you're my best bestest friend, Rachel's just my best friend." So it was only naturally that Santana, as Brittany girlfriend, had seen a lot of Rachel and strangely enough over time they had become friends too. When Brittany started getting other dancing gigs, with several famous singers and had to go on tours around the country and later the world. She had demanded that Santana took care of her best friend, because Brittany knew that Rachel got very lonely, especially when Finn was deployed overseas for so long. Santana, who still hadn't figured out how to say no to her girlfriend, had started reluctantly spending even more time with the infuriating Hobbit. But after a while she found out that Rachel wasn't as bad to hang out with, as she had been in high school. The surprising result was that Rachel had become one of Santana's closest friends and to be honest she didn't have a lot of them. Most people didn't know how to control her rapidly changing mood swings, but Rachel usually knew how to defuse her in a second. Santana always had a suspicion that Brittany had taught Rachel how to handle her alter ego Snix, whenever she decided to make an appearance. So even if all Santana wanted to do right now was to hate Rachel, she was still her friend and Santana knew that something wasn't right with her. She had therefore decided to pay more closely attention to Rachel, to find out what she was trying to hide.

* * *

Rachel had kept quiet, till she and Finn were inside the kitchen. She wanted to make sure that nobody heard what she was about to ask him. She quietly closed the kitchen door, just to be on the safe side and turned around to find her fiancé already setting the table.

"Finn what are you doing?"

"Setting the table. Don't you remember that you asked me to help you?" Finn looked a little dumbfounded by her question. Rachel tried to stay calm.

"That was just a cover for me wanting to talk to you."

"Oh. So what do you want to talk about babe?" Finn stopped what he was doing and turned to face his fiancé with a smile. Rachel felt like she wanted to scream.

"Why did you lie to Kurt about taking the influenza vaccine? I clearly remember that you told me that your unit took it two days before you got send home." Finn's smile quickly vanished.

"Oh, yeah that. Well I didn't want to worry the others, since there is nothing to be afraid of."

Finn looked positively guilty and he tried to avoid Rachel's stare and she desperately tried not to panic because of that. She knew her fiancé well and when he was hiding something from her, he always tried not to look her in the eyes. That was the reason why he had never been able to surprise her with anything, but he didn't know that because she had always acted surprised even if she wasn't. She was after all an excellent actress, but this was not the time to act stupid.

"Finn what are you not telling me?" Finn looked at her. He seemed surprised that she had seen through his lie. He started to squirm.

"Rachel I really can't tell you, I have my orders. I can even get sent to jail for telling you state secrets. Please babe don't make me." He was pleading with her to understand, but she refused to listen to him.

"Finn this is not the time to keep secrets from me. If you don't tell me everything right now, I'll go out to your brother and tell him that you lied to him. So you better tell me what's going on!" She knew it was a cheap shot to threaten her own boyfriend, but she was desperate. Finn looked at her like she had slapped him.

"Fine, but don't you come to me crying, if I get sent to prison for telling you this."

Rachel wanted to roll her eyes at him. People called her a diva, but right now Finn could certainly give her a run for the money at being dramatic. Finn gestured for her to take a seat.

"It's probably best that you sit down for this." Rachel nervously took a seat and Finn sat down opposite Rachel and then he started his story.

"Well I might know a little bit more about this situation, than I lead you guys to believe." Rachel suddenly felt like throwing up, because she had an awful feeling that this wasn't going to be good news. Finn didn't seem to notice and just continued.

"You see the thing is that when we were stationed in Kabul, there was this local legend about an ancient myth, that claimed that it was possible to turn people indestructible. The story told about this forbidden garden, where there was a plant growing that would give the person that ate it eternal life, but of course there was also a warning. The warning claimed that if you decided to eat that plant, you could never leave the forbidden place for the rest of your life. If you tried to leave, you would be struck by an evil curse." Finn laughed.

"After we heard that story for the first time my buddies and I thought that it was just a superstitious folktale, but our Major unfortunately didn't. He persistently tried to find this forbidden place and apparently after bribing the right people, he finally got the location. He then ordered me and two other guys to get him that plant. The three of us spent nearly four weeks searching for this made up place and we nearly gave up, but then we finally found it. It was no wonder we almost missed it, since the place was hidden far away from all civilization. The forbidden garden was so beautiful and untouched by humans, that we almost didn't dare enter, but we unfortunately decided to do it anyway. We quickly found this so-called cursed plant and we knew that we had strict orders to get it and immediately return back to camp. Our Major had even told us that we weren't allowed to take or eat one of the plants ourselves. We did hesitate taking the plant, because we were all a little bit frightened by that warning, but we still decided to take it with us back to our base camp." Finn sighed.

"Later on we accidentally found out that our Major had sent that plant, to this "secret" military drug testing facility in America. Not long after that a rumor started floating around the camp, about a new drug that the military was planning on distributing to the American troops. The drug was rumored to make the person taking it a better soldier. This sounded a little bit familiar to me, but it was just a rumor going around so I didn't pay it much attention. I forgot the whole thing till Franck, one of the guys who was with me when we collected the plant, died." Finn could see that Rachel was starting to panic, so he quickly tried to reassure her.

"No, he didn't get murdered because of that. He died because he stepped on a lane mine, but he didn't die immediately. He survived for a day and that's when he told me that he had stolen one of the plants from the garden and had sold it to a well-known medicine company back in America. He had apparently been approached by this big pharmaceutical company, before we got send to Kabul. They had asked him to be on the lookout for rear plants and flowers, that they could possibly be interested in. He had in return been promised a lot of money, so he had accepted, since he needed the money for his cancer sick daughter back home. He didn't have the money to give her the treatment she needed. She's only four years old and the doctors had told Franck, that if she got this new experimental drug than it was more likely that she would survive, but their health insurance didn't cover that that type of treatment. So he was forced to pay for it himself, which he couldn't afford on his salary. So it was no wonder Franck decided to do it, even if he was risking his job agreeing to something he wasn't allowed to do according to our military contracts. But Franck was willing to do whatever it took to get the best treatment for his little girl. I still don't know why he told me this, because he didn't get to tell me everything, before he died." Finn took a break from his story and looked at Rachel, who had tears in her eyes. He gave her a weak smile and continued.

"After that we heard a second rumor about a new type of flu, that was going around in South America, killing a lot of people. Everyone was apparently freaking out about it. So suddenly this new swine flu vaccine came out and of course everyone hurried to get it, since it would protect them against the flu. That was also around the time that the military decided to test out their new drug and we were all ordered to take it. I didn't want to at first, but after we were given the shot, I felt so strong and powerful." He looked at Rachel and smiled.

"I have never felt as good as I do right now, but even if the military told us that we were taking the flu vaccine. I knew that it wasn't the same shot, because of what Franck had told me. So I figured that it was no use frightening our friends for no reason. Especially since I feel just fine and nothings wrong with me." He finished his story and looked at Rachel, she was now smiling brightly.

"So you really didn't take the influenza vaccine? Does that mean that you don't have to report to the government?" Rachel felt relief wash over her, she had been so afraid that Finn had taken that flu shot and that he had to leave her here by herself. She finally felt like she could breathe a little bit easier.

"No of course not." He smiled back at her. "Were you afraid that I had to go out there again?"

"Yes and I was freaking out. I know you're not agreeing with me about those things being zombies, but whatever they are they're extremely dangerous and I don't want you out there with them." Finn laughed.

"Babe you know that I work in the military right? I'm used to facing danger everyday."

"That doesn't mean that I'm used to it!" Tears started to roll down Rachel's cheeks. Finn stopped laughing at the sight of his crying girlfriend and he quickly scooped her up in his arms and tried to comfort her.

"Rachel you know that danger is a part of my job. I know you want me to quit, but I want to make my father proud of me and he never liked quitters." This conversation wasn't new and it always ended up making Rachel angry. So she quickly stood up and dusted off her clothes.

"I know, I know! You have told me that like a hundred times already!" She sighed in defeat, it was no use getting angry right now. It wouldn't change anything. So she turned to look at the refrigerator instead." I need to make something to eat, so the others won't suspect that something is wrong." Finn looked puzzled.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No of course not, but they think that we went in here to make dinner and if we go out there without food they will think something isn't right."

"Oh, okay."

"Could you just finish setting the table, please." Rachel was still upset, but she tried not to snap at him.

"Yeah, I can do that." He smiled back at her.

It didn't take Rachel long to make an easy dinner of what she found in the fridge. She then asked Finn to get Santana, Kurt and Blaine so they could eat. Santana was the first one that came barging into the kitchen.

"That was about time! I was starting to wonder if you and the Pastry Bag, had eaten all the food by yourself. Wow, it smells so good in here!"

Santana would never admitted it out loud, but she loved Rachel's cooking and the smell that had hit her, when she entered the kitchen, was mouth-watering. The meal itself was eaten relatively quietly and since none of them had gotten a lot of sleep last night, they all decided to go to bed early.

* * *

The next day didn't bring any good news and it was a day they all would rather forget about. It all started when Blaine woke them up early that morning, by shouting for them to get down to the living room. After a lot of fumbling and cursing, mostly from Santana, they found themselves in front of the TV again. What yesterday had appeared to be two calm and collected news anchors telling the American people that everything was under control, where today two people looking extremely frightened, tired and weary.

"Isn't that the same outfits that they wore yesterday?" Santana rolled her eyes. Of course that's what Kurt was most worried about. Blaine nodded.

"Yeah, she's still wearing that orange pin in her hair that you pointed out was dreadful yesterday, because it didn't match her purple top." Santana sighed. This couldn't be more cliché, the gay guys were talking fashion and in the meantime the world was probably coming to and end.

"Could you two just shut up and turn up the sound!"

Blaine had the decency to look ashamed, but Kurt just looked offended by Santana's outburst. Blaine quickly did as Santana demanded and turned up the volume. The news looked even worse than the reporters did.

The whole country had been put under a quarantine. The American government had temporarily forbidden anybody to step outside of their residence. Their attempted to gather all the people, that had taken the flu shot, had apparently backfired. The plan had been to put those people under quarantine, just to monitor their condition, since it seemed that it was something wrong with the vaccine itself. Only a few people had turned up. The rest had either tried to run or denied that they had taken the influenza vaccine at all.

At this point Rachel had turned to look at Finn, but she quickly turned back to the TV again, trying not to draw attention to herself. Santana wouldn't have noticed it, if it hadn't been for her being able to see Rachel's reflection in the TV screen. She once again got that nagging feeling, that she also had yesterday. Santana didn't like that her gut feeling was telling her, that she no longer could trust Finn or Rachel, but she pushed that to the back of her mind for the moment and turned her concentration back to the reporters.

The military was now going from house to house, evacuating people to safe zones. If you got evacuated to the safe zones, everybody that had taken the vaccine would get a anti shot when they arrived there. If you had taken the flu vaccine and felt sick before you got evacuated, you had to get to a government facility or a hospital as fast as possible, to get a anti shot to prevent you from getting ill. This was extremely important to do, because if you didn't get treatment immediately, the risk of dying was extremely high.

Santana's suspicion only grew when Rachel again turned back to look at Finn and this time Santana saw Finn shake is head. Rachel turned back and it looked like she was about to cry. This couldn't be a good sign. This was probably really, really fucking bad, especially if her gut feeling was right about this. Santana knew that she had to do something, but to be honest she didn't know exactly what it was she needed to do, since she still didn't know for sure what the two of them were hiding.

The reporters were now complaining about the fact that they themselves hadn't been home because of the quarantine and that they all had to suffer. Still they and their TV crew would be evacuated and taken to a safe zone later that day.

Who cared about what happened to them, Santana thought to herself. She was more concerned about their own situation. Would really Rachel and Finn try to cover it up, if Finn had taken that vaccine or was Rachel just afraid of something else? Santana was getting a headache again and the wound in the back of her head wasn't helping. Apparently Rachel had been keeping an eye on Santana.

"We have to change your bandage Santana, the blood has seeped through."

Santana didn't have the energy to argue, so she let Rachel take care of her. She used their alone time to try to get some information out of Rachel, but she immediately shot down that conversation and started talking about some Broadway crap instead.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent with Kurt and Santana exploring the house, while Blaine and Finn watched the TV for any updates. Rachel had opted to make dinner again and had also started cleaning the house from top to bottom. Santana didn't see the point in that, but she knew that whenever Rachel was trying to come up with a solution to a problem, she liked to clean. Santana had often used that to her advantage before. She couldn't even count how many times she had tricked Rachel in to cleaning her apartment for her, when Rachel was trying to sort out a problem she was having at the moment. Santana absolutely loved having a free maid.

When Kurt and Santana decided to take a closer look at the basement, Rachel decided to use the opportunity to talk to Finn alone.

"Finn can you please come and help me in the kitchen?" Finn reluctantly turned around and left the TV and walked into the kitchen. He smiled at Rachel.

"What's up babe? What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to talk to you, without the others getting suspicious."

Finn had been anticipating that Rachel wanted to talk about the influenza vaccine again. He sat down and patiently waited for her to start talking. Rachel finally blurted out.

"I want us to go and get you that anti shot Finn, just in case!" Finn sighed.

"I told you that we didn't get the same flu shot as the public." It looked like Rachel was going to protest, so he quickly raised his right hand to stop her from talking. "And we haven't got more gas in the car, remember?" Rachel closed her mouth and her shoulders slumped in defeat.

"But I don't want you to get sick Finn."

"I'm not gonna get sick babe." Finn smiled and gathered Rachel up in his arms. She sniffled.

"I'm just so worried all the time and I can't talk to anybody about it."

"You can talk to me."

"I know, but it's not the same. I really want to talk to Santana or Kurt, they are my closest friends." Finn laughed humorlessly.

"Yes, that's a good idea. You go tell Santana, that you think I'm going to turn into a zombie and then she can kill me." Rachel looked up at him, with disbelief written all over her face.

"She would never do that! She's my friend, probably my best friend. I know that she's mad at me right now because of Brittany, but she would never do that."

"And as I have said before, I still can't believe that you guys have become friends. Who would have thought that in high school?" Finn laughed. Rachel didn't look pleased.

"I always wanted to be her, Quinn and Brittany's friend, but they were too concerned with their popularity, to accept my offer of friendship. But when they no longer had to think about that, we had the opportunity to become friends. Santana is now one of my few real friends, that doesn't just want to be my friend because of my success on Broadway." She smiled up at Finn.

"I know she's your best friend. You always talk about her, whenever you call me abroad. Santana might like you now, but she has always hated me." Rachel tried to say something, but Finn stopped her.

"Eh, don't try to defend her, you know it's true. I will admit that she has a good reasons to still hate me and I don't blame her for it. So I do think that she would love to finally get the chance to kill me, she certainly wanted to in high school after I so stupidly threw her out of the closet."

"I think you're being a little over dramatic about this, but I promise that I won't tell them anything." Rachel looked down to her folded hands. Finn slowly lifted her chin up and kissed her.

"Thank you and don't worry everything is going to be fine, just wait and see." He tried to give her a reassuring smile before he walked out of the kitchen to talk to Blaine and left Rachel to herself.

Rachel immediately started passing back and forth in the kitchen. Finn had told her not to worry, but that was all she could do. She was disappointed that she couldn't talk to Santana or Kurt, they would have helped her figure this out. To get something else to think about she decided to make a salad for their dinner that was currently simmering on the stove, but she was interrupted halfway through when Blaine shouted out.

"What the fuck happened?!"

Rachel hurriedly rushed out of the kitchen to find everyone staring at the blank TV screen. At first Rachel was wondering if the TV was broken, but when she saw her friends white faces and scared eyes she knew there was something terribly wrong.

"Wh-what happened?"

Her words seemed to wake the others from their coma like states. Finn turned to look at her, but the rest of them turned to look at Finn. Nobody said anything and Rachel was freaking out. She needed to know what it was, that had spooked them so much and why they were all staring at Finn, with fear written all over their faces.

"Tell me what happened!" Blaine was the one who spoke first and his voice was trembling.

"The TV station was getting evacuated by the military and the reporters were interviewing the Colonel before their departure, but then everything ended in chaos. It looked like some of the soldiers had turned to zombies or what ever those things are. They attacked the Colonel and the reporters and started to eat them alive. There was a lot of screaming and crying, before someone knocked the camera over and that's when the screen went blank."

Rachel felt like her heart was going to explode in fear and she quickly looked at Finn, who for the first time seemed to be genuinely scared. That didn't help Rachel calm down at all and she felt like she was starting to panic. She quickly turned to Blaine again.

"Have you tried the other TV stations?"

When they first started to watch the TV for updates, they had been switching back and forth between those station that had been broadcasting only news. After a while they had all agreed that this station was the best, so they had only been watching it since. As Blaine started to flip through the other channels, Rachel's panic only grew. Channel after channel was off air or blank. The only channel Blaine found that was still transmitting a picture, freaked them all out even more. Because all they could see on the TV screen was a newsroom with no people in sight, but there was a lot of blood smeared all over the back wall and you could clearly see a few bloody hand prints among the blood spatter. Blaine tried to flip through all the channels again. When he landed on the same bloody picture, Rachel had apparently had enough.

"Turn it off!"

"But-" Blaine tried to argue.

"I said turn it off. Now!" Rachel was shouting so loud that she frightened them all, even herself.

Blaine turned the TV off and sank down into one of the living room chairs. It had gotten eerily quiet after Rachel's outburst, but that didn't last for long.

"You took the flu shot didn't you!" Santana was pointing at Finn, she looked angry, but also frightened. "That's why you two have been acting so strange. I knew it, you lied!" She was now shouting at Finn, but it looked like she didn't dare to get any closer to him.

"No I didn't! I told you guys that I was scheduled to take the vaccine after my leave."

Somehow Finn looked to be back to his normal self, he didn't even flinch when Santana kept accusing him and Rachel of hiding something. Rachel tried in vain to persuade Santana, that Finn had only been trying to comfort her. Santana didn't stop before Rachel screamed.

"He was trying to make me feel better because I felt responsible for Brittany death!"

She knew it was a horrible lie, but she needed Santana to shut up before Kurt and Blaine started to ask questions too. She felt utterly miserable when she saw how Santana's face fell when she heard Brittany's name, but it did what she had hoped it would do because Santana didn't say anything more. Kurt awkwardly tried to break the tension in the room.

"Maybe we should eat something. It smells really good in here."

Rachel suddenly remembered the dinner cooking on the stove and ran into the kitchen. The food wasn't burned and they all sat down to eat, but none of them were really hungry. They just sat there in an uncomfortable silence and pushed the food around the plate without eating it. Afterwards they all just went to their separate bedrooms.

* * *

Rachel was brushing her teeth when Finn called out to her from their bedroom.

"Rachel I need to talk to you!"

"Coming!"

She hurried to get finished and when she entered the bedroom, Finn was standing beside their bed holding a gun. Rachel flinched. She hated guns and Finn knew that. She had begged him not to take his gun with them on this vacation, but he obviously hadn't listen to her. Finn could see that she wasn't happy about the gun, but he dismissed it because he needed to tell her what he had decided before he chickened out.

"Yes, I know that you asked me not to bring the gun with us, but to be fair it has only been laying in the rental car the whole time. Still that's not the point. I need to talk to you and all I ask of you is to not interrupt me, till I have finished talking." He pointed for her to take a seat on their bed.

"I truly believed this situation was going to be fine and that the military would fix this, but after what I saw today, I don't believe that anymore. Those soldiers that turned into those monsters, were from the same military branch as I am. So I do have to face the possibility, that I might be infected too." Rachel started to open her mouth, but Finn stopped her.

"I'm not finished yet." Rachel bit back her question and let Finn continue.

"Even if I have been acting like this hasn't effected me, it has. Deep down I have probably known from the day we took that forbidden plant, that something was going to go terribly wrong, but I tried to ignore it. When we saw those monsters kill Brittany, I still didn't believe it was more than some crazy lunatics. Still I have to admit that when we drove out of San Francisco, it was way too many of them for it to be a coincident. So when those reporters told us about the governments country-wide quarantine and evacuation, I knew that the situation was out of control. Everybody with a little military training knows that it's impossible to quarantine, let alone evacuate, an area as big as America. That would take too much time and they don't even have enough personnel or resources to do so. Even if I knew all those things, I were hoping for the best and I didn't want to alarm anyone before it was necessary." He sighed.

"Well I think that it's about time for me to warn someone, because when I saw those soldiers kill their Colonel today, I knew that you-" He looked directly at Rachel for the first time since he started the conversation. "might not be safe with me anymore. So I went and got my gun out from the rental car. I know that you hate guns and that you're a pacifist, but if I turn to one of those monsters, I need to know that you can defend yourself against me." Rachel looked shocked. She stuttered out.

"You – you want me to..." Finn looked at her with a determined look in his eyes.

"Yes, I want you to kill me, if I turn into one of those monsters." Finn was looking at her with pleading eyes.

"I can't kill you Finn!" Rachel started to cry.

"Rachel you'll have to do it! If I turn, I will try to kill you and all the others too. So if you won't promise to kill me if I turn, I might as well go outside to the backyard and shoot myself in the head. I can't live with the knowledge, that I might kill you babe." Rachel looked at him in disbelief.

"You – you would kill yourself, to keep me safe? Are you crazy?! You can't kill yourself! You don't even know if you're infected!" Finn didn't budge.

"Then you'll have to promise me, that you will shoot me if I change!" Rachel couldn't believe he was asking her for this and if she didn't agree, he was even threatening to kill himself. This was absurd! She didn't want to, but Finn kept pestering her till she finally snapped.

"Fine I'll do it!"

"Thank you."

Finn was smiling like he had won the lottery and all Rachel wanted to do was to throw up. Then he proceeded, for a whole hour, to show her how to use the gun. He even taught her the most effective way to kill him, if he attacked her. Rachel was so exhausted, that she quickly fell asleep after that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Warnings for chapter 3: **Major character death, violence and cursing.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Santana hadn't said a word to anyone since Rachel had mentioned Brittany's name, but that didn't mean that she had stopped wondering about what Finn and Rachel were hiding. She had been laying sleepless in her bed for most of the night, thinking about what to do about it. After hours of turning and tossing, she had finally decided to confront Rachel in the morning.

Santana woke up later than usually because of her late night and she was on her way down to eat breakfast, when she heard a groan coming from Finn and Rachel's bedroom. Her first instinct was to get as fast and far away from their room as possible. She had no interest in being privileged to hearing the walrus violating the helpless baby seal. She was about to run down the stairs to avoid hearing any more disturbing noises, but she quickly stopped her descent when she heard a bone freezing snarling sound, coming from inside the bedroom. Santana really didn't want to know if it was just Rachel and Finn being freaky in bed, but she had still stopped because that sound had given her goosebumps. She was suddenly petrified that something had happened to Rachel and it took her less than two hurried long steps to get to the bedroom door. She quickly yanked it open and then she froze.

* * *

Rachel was still half asleep when she was woken up by some strange noises coming from Finn's side of the bed. She tiredly turned around and found Finn still sleeping by her side, but he looked really pale and he was soaked in sweat. Rachel quickly figured out that he had a high fever. So she decided to get some cold towels to try to put down the temperature a little bit, before she would go down to the kitchen to find some painkillers. She was on her way back from the bathroom with the wet towels, when she heard a groan coming from Finn. He was now standing beside the bed with his back towards her. Rachel was about to ask him if he was feeling better, when he suddenly turn around.

Who she saw standing before her, wasn't the man she had fallen in love with in high school. No, this man had once been her fiancé, but now he looked like a monster with soulless eyes, that were staring blankly back at her. In that instant she knew that Finn was gone, because he looked just like all those people they had seen on there way out of San Francisco, that day Brittany had been killed. Rachel had seen enough of those monsters, while they were killing people in the streets, to know that Finn had become one of them. They had even crashed into one with their car and that thing had just turned around and stared at them, just like Finn was staring at her now, before it had attacked the rental car to try to get inside to kill them all.

Rachel didn't know what to do, she wanted to scream, but her throat was so dry that she couldn't even get a tiny sound out. Then she remembered the gun laying on her nightstand. She could probably get to it before that thing got to her, but then she hesitated. What if there was a cure and they could save Finn? If she killed him now, then no one couldn't save him. Rachel quickly forgot all about her dilemma, when she heard this horrible ear piercing sound coming out of Finn's mouth, as he quickly started moving towards her. She didn't get any time to react before he was towering over her, ready to bite. In the struggle that followed Rachel desperately tried to keep him away from her neck, but he was so strong. Rachel quickly understood that he was going to win and she knew she was going to lose. Rachel was about to give up, when the bedroom door sprang open and Santana stumbled inside.

* * *

Santana didn't know what she had expected to see when she busted through the bedroom door, but seeing Finn towering over Rachel, ready to bite her in the neck was not on her mind at all. She hadn't, like the others, seen a lot of those monsters since she had been laying unconscious in the back of the rental car, on their way out of San Francisco. So when Finn turned around and stared at her, she froze, but it was only for a second. Because Finn quickly started staggering towards her instead. Santana almost panicked, but when Rachel shouted "There's a gun on the nightstand beside you!" she acted on instinct and snatched the gun up just in time to point it at Finn's gaping mouth right in front of her and pull the trigger. The next think she knew Rachel was screaming and she herself was covered in Finn's blood and Finn was laying on the floor, motionless.

Before Santana could do anything, Blaine came running into the bedroom and he quickly scanned the scene in front of him. He saw Finn dead on the floor, with blood seeping out of the back of his neck and mouth. Rachel laying in a heap in the corner, crying and Santana standing with a gun, pointing straight forward in the direction of Rachel. It really wasn't so strange, that he misinterpreted the whole situation and attacked Santana to try to get the gun away from her. Luckily for Blaine, Santana was taken by surprise and the shot that went off in the fight between them only nicked him in the arm, but it was enough for him to stop hitting Santana in the face and fall backwards clutching his left arm while he screamed in pain.

That was the moment Kurt chose to come tumbling into the room. The first thing he saw was his husband holding his bleeding arm, then his stepbrother dead on the floor, Rachel crying in the corner and a beaten and bloody Santana with a gun that was now pointing in his direction. The only sensible thing Kurt could think of, was to raise his hands over his head and surrender.

"Please don't shoot me, I have too much to live for!" Santana had finally gotten over the shock of shooting Finn and then being attacked by Blaine.

"What the fuck! I'm not the bad guy her. Your husband beat me up for no reason!" She was furious.

"No reason! You killed Finn and you were about to kill Rachel and you probably would have, if I hadn't stopped you. Then you shot me! I think that makes you the villain in this story, not me!" Blaine looked like he wanted to jump Santana again.

Santana was about to tell him how stupid he was, when a groaning noise came from Finn and to everyone's surprise, he suddenly stood up and turned towards Kurt and Blaine. Kurt screamed like a little girl and if it had been in any other situation, Santana would have made fun of him. This on the other hand was not the time for teasing. Finn, who was still bleeding from the gunshot in his mouth, began stumbling towards a stunned Blaine. Kurt was nowhere to be found, since he had bolted out the door the second Finn stood up. He had apparently forgotten all about his husband still laying helplessly on the floor, luckily for him Santana hadn't. She pointed the gun at Finn and shot him, but this time she made sure the bullet hit him in the head. She knew that it usually worked in the movies, so she thought that she would try that instead. Now it was Blaine's turn to get sprayed with Finn's blood, before Finn fell down right beside him.

"Kurt get your chicken ass in here! Finn is dead and you need to help your husband!"

Santana walked to Finn's lifeless body and shot him in the head a second time, just to make sure that he was really dead this time, she didn't want him to come back to life again. She had seen one too many horror movies were that happened. Kurt reluctantly came back into the room, he was eyeing Finn's body uncertainty like he thought it would pop up any second and try to kill him.

"Stop looking at him, his dead! I shot him three times, so he better be dead. You have to get a grip and help Blaine get into the shower. We don't know if this thing can be transmitted through blood and Blaine is bleeding. So you'll have to get him cleaned up quickly! I need to take a shower too, since Blaine beat me up." Kurt hesitated.

"NOW!" That seemed to get Kurt moving and he helped his shocked husband up and pulled him towards the bathroom in the hallway. Santana turned around and looked at a crying and trembling Rachel.

"Rachel, Sweety." She tried "I have to take a shower, because I got Finn's blood all over me and I don't want to catch anything. I have to borrow your bathroom." She didn't get a response and she really didn't have time to wait for one, but when she moved past Finn to get to the shower Rachel's head shot up.

"Don't leave me here alone!" She sounded so small and broken.

All Santana wanted to do was to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be all right, but that would have been the world's biggest lie and she knew it. Nothing was going to be okay, for either of them ever again.

"That's fine, but you'll have to either come with me when I shower or you'll have to go to Dumb and Dumber down the hall."

Rachel looked towards the bedroom door, but she had to walk passed Finn's dead body to get to Kurt and Blaine, so she quickly turned back to Santana.

"I'll go with you."

They both went into the en suite bathroom and Santana locked the door, just to be on the safe side. She stripped out of her bloody clothes and walked into the shower to get all the blood away from her body. What she didn't see was Rachel blushing profoundly and scolding herself for suddenly having inappropriate thoughts, especially when her fiancé was laying dead just outside the bathroom door.

Santana was scrubbing her face like a maniac. She was really hoping that neither she or Blaine had been affected by that crap Finn had been exposed to. If she had been infected and turned to one of those zombies, she promised herself that she would eat Blaine first, just to get revenge. When she stepped out of the shower, Rachel quickly handed her a towel and carefully inspected Santana's face.

"We'll have to put some anti-inflammatory cream on those cuts, Blaine gave you."

"Yeah, but I need some clean clothes first." They both looked towards the bathroom door and Rachel started to tremble. Santana sighed and reached out her hand towards Rachel. "Come on." Rachel quickly grabbed her hand and took a big breath before she nodded.

Santana hesitatingly walked to the door, desperately trying not to lose the towel that was wrapped loosely around her Rambunctious Twins. She slowly peeked out and to her relief Finn was still laying motionless on the floor, in a large pool of blood. That was steadily growing bigger because of the constant stream of blood, that was still seeping from his bullet wounds. Santana knew he was dead, but she still didn't look forward to having to walk past his body. She felt Rachel starting to shake beside her and she knew that she had to hurry up before Rachel collapsed again. So Santana tugged on Rachel's hand and as fast as she could she strode past Finn. When they were standing safely in the corridor outside Finn and Rachel's room, they both relaxed a little bit. Before they walked to Santana's room, where she got dressed quickly with Rachel inside her room. Since Rachel still didn't want to be alone and she was too scared to go find the other two on her own. Santana even had to, almost forcefully, pry her hand back to get dressed. When Santana was finished, Rachel quickly grabbed it again and held it tight, while they went downstairs. Where they found Kurt bandaging up Blaine's bullet wound in the kitchen. Rachel finally let go of Santana's hand willingly and started applying some ointment on the cuts, Blaine had given her. It smelt awful and it stung even worse.

Blaine had, the whole time since they entered the kitchen, been looking down at the floor, but when Kurt clapped his hands and exclaimed. "All done, as good as new." He finally looked up and turned to Santana with and apologetic expression.

"I'm so sorry Santana. When I came in there it really looked like you had murdered Finn and was going to shoot Rachel too. I know that you aren't that crazy, but with everything that had happened and you losing..." He looked down again. "I thought that you had snapped. I should have known better and I'm truly sorry for hitting you. If it'll make you feel any better you did get to shoot me." He desperately tried to lighten the mood, but no one laughed.

"I don't blame you. I would probably have done the same if I were in your place, but if I turn into a zombie because of you I'm eating you first!" Blaine looked at her and gave her an small smile, he knew this was the best he was getting from Santana.

"Deal! I even let you eat me." At that Kurt slapped him in the back of his head.

"No you're not!" The three of them smiled, but they were brought back to reality when Rachel quietly spoke.

"We have to bury Finn, we can't let him stay up there." Kurt nodded and looked at Santana

"She's right and I think that it has to be you and I that have to get his body down. Blaine can't carry anything because of his injured and Rachel shouldn't have to do that, I think she's been through enough. Don't you?" Santana agreed.

"Yeah I do, but someone needs to keep watch with the gun when we walk outside. Just in case any of those monsters decides to show up." Blaine quickly volunteered.

"I could do that. I can't help you guys carry, but my right hand is working just fine so I can still hold a gun to protect you guys."

"Okay then that's settled. Come on Kurt lets do this before it gets dark."

Kurt and Santana went up to the second floor where Finn was laying. After some brainstorming about how to get his body down, Kurt came up with the idea to put Finn's body on top of a bed sheet and then carry it down. The plan worked well and they relatively easily managed to get down to the first floor again. Santana handed Blaine the gun and the four of them went out to the backyard. Santana's whole body was tens and she kept peeking over her shoulder the whole time, but she wasn't the only one. They were all anxiously looking around to see if they could spot anything suspicious or dangerous near by.

Kurt and Santana had to dig a grave with some shovels that Rachel found in a tool shed. They made sure to dig the grave as far away from the well as they possibly could get, because Santana pointed out that it was better to be on the safe side and everyone agreed with her. When the job was done, Rachel held a short memorial service while Santana kept a look out with the gun back in her hand again. They could all breathed easier when they finally were safely back inside the house again.

Rachel was still crying, she had started when Santana and Kurt were covering Finn's body with dirt and she hadn't stopped since. Kurt had tried to comfort her, but without any luck. It was first when she threw herself in Santana's arms that she seemed to calm down a little bit. Santana looked up at Kurt in shock, but he just shrugged his shoulders and mouthed a silent "Please!" So Santana had carefully started to rock Rachel back and forth to try and comfort her. It didn't take long before Rachel was fast asleep in her arms. Santana sighed in relief and then she looked at Kurt and Blaine.

"We need to come up with a plan on how to survive with those things lurking around out there. I suggest that we search through the whole house, the shed and the garage tomorrow. I want to see if there is anything we can use to defend ourself against those monsters. We also need to find out how much food we have left, we need to know for how long we can stay in this house without starving to death." She then directed all her focus to Blaine.

"Blaine. You and I have a great responsibility in this group." Blaine looked a little confused. "You and I might have been infected today by Finn's blood, since we both had flesh wounds. That means that we have to promise each other, for Kurt and Rachel's sake, that if either one of us feel just a little bit sick we'll have to tell the others about it." Now Kurt looked like he was panicking. Santana smirked.

"Came down Grandma I'm not planning to shoot your Pretty Pony. I'm just saying if he or I feel sick, we just have to tell everyone about it. Then we'll have to either see if it gets worse or we'll have to contain the one that is sick, but only till we can confirm if we're turning or not. Does that sound fair?" Both men nodded. "Okay. Now we have to discuss what to do about Rachel." Kurt frowned

"What about Rachel?"

"Well she lied to us about Finn, that's for sure. So how do we know if she's telling us the truth about herself. What if she took the vaccine too, not just Finn?" Kurt looked shocked.

"I hadn't thought about that." Then Blaine pointed at Santana.

"And how do we know if you haven't lied about taking it?"

"Yeah you're right. Maybe you guys lied about taking it too."

"Okay, hold up. That's enough accusing for now. How about we just talk to Rachel tomorrow and then she can tell us why she lied to us. You know as well as I Santana that she rarely lies, you know how much she hates it."

"Yeah I know Kurt. She's terrible at holding secrets too, that's why I knew something was wrong. So I agree, we'll confront her about it tomorrow. Now lets get some sleep, we're going to need it." Santana looked back down to the sleeping girl in her arms and then back up at Kurt.

"Think you could help me get Rachel up to my room? I don't think she should be sleeping in that room again."

"Sure. I can get her things in the morning and maybe get the worst of that mess cleaned up."

"That would be great. When you're finished just lock the door and be careful if you clean up that blood. I really don't want you to turn into a zombie."

"I'm not planning to. Those things have a terrible fashion sense, even I can't pull of that skin tone and those ragged clothes." They all laughed even if the joke wasn't funny, given the situation they where in, but Santana thought to herself that it was better to laugh than cry.


	4. Chapter 4

**Warning for chapter 4: **Violence

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 4**

The next day Kurt, Blaine and Santana had a serious discussion with Rachel, where she ended up explaining why she had lied to them about Finn. It got a little bit heated when Santana tried to accuse Rachel of lying about not taking the vaccine herself, but in the end they all felt like Rachel was telling them the truth.

Santana and Blaine then proceeded to almost tear the house apart in their search for things that could be useful, while Rachel and Kurt took stock of how much food they had left. They were almost done searching inside the house, when Blaine shouted for everyone to get into the living room.

"Guys look what I found!" He had apparently managed to find an old radio in the attic and was smiling like a maniac. "If we're lucky maybe they haven't stopped broadcasting the radio signals yet." He started turning the tuner around and after some searching he finally found one channel that was still on the air. So they all started listening to the local radio station, which was based in San Francisco.

The radio host was at the moment telling his listeners a story, involving him not getting out of the city before the zombies took it over. He had been broadcasting the whole time, but that was only because he couldn't get out of the building since the radio station was constantly surrounded by zombies. The whole of San Francisco had been in utter chaos after the outbreak started. Still it had looked like everything had been taken care of when the military had moved in to clean out the streets, but then they too had turned and that had made everything even worse. The radio host had tried to get out of the station, but hadn't dared do it again after his colleague had been torn to pieces right in front of his own eyes, he himself had barely made it back inside alive.

All his ways of communicating with the outside world was gone, but before everything had disappeared he could tell them about all the different horror stories from around the world that he had heard and read about. It seemed like most of the world had been affected and it looked like it really was a worldwide disaster. He himself was soon out of food and he had no chance of getting more, so he was using his last hours to live talking to whoever was listening and wishing them better luck surviving than he had. When he started rambling about his wife and kids and how much he loved them, Kurt signaled for Blaine to turn the radio off. It was dead quiet in the room afterwards and they all looked like the world had ended.

Santana was the first to pull herself together and she cleared her throat to snap the others back to life. They all looked back at her with fear in their eyes and Santana quickly decided to take charge. "Since we apparently won't get any help any time soon, we have to try to survive on our own." She pointed to Rachel. "How much food do we have left?" Rachel shook her head sadly.

"Not so much. A couple of days worth of food, maybe a week if we ration it. There's a little more food for you guys to eat, since there's some meat in the freezer." Santana gaped in shock. She knew they were lacking food, but she hadn't believed that they had so little. She looked at Kurt and Blaine before she turned back to Rachel.

"Okay, Kurt, Blaine and I will eat mostly meat, then you can take the food we have left that you're able to eat."

"But-"

"No buts Rachel. You don't eat meat and we do and I don't want you to starve." She ignored Rachel's protests and turned back to Kurt and Blaine again. "You guys are cool with that right?"

"Yeah of course."

"Totally."

"See, everyone is fine with it, so don't argue." Rachel nodded in defeat and looked down to her hands. Santana sighed.

"Since we have so little food left, I'm afraid that we'll have to relocate and that means that we have to walk, since the car is out of gas." Everyone in the living room had looked rather pale after the radio broadcast, but when Santana told them that they had to leave the house they all looked like ghosts. Santana didn't look any better herself. "Yeah I don't want to do that either, but we have no choice. If we stay here we will most likely die from starvation, but if we leave we at least have a better chance of surviving. We do have Finn's gun to protect us and you all saw that I know how to use it. I even found some extra ammunition in Finn's bag, so we do have some protection against those lunatics out there. Still I suggest that we try to find some type of weapon for you guys too. There's probably something we can use in the tool shed or the garage, but it's too dark outside to go check it out today. So we'll have to do that tomorrow. I also think that we should start packing for the journey ahead. I did see some backpacks in the basement and I think that it would be better for us to use them rather than our bags and suitcases. Those backpacks will be better suited, because we need to pack lightly. We can only take with us what we truly need like clothes, supplies and food. Not too much, since we'll have to be able to carry it and also run with it if we get chased." Santana looked at the three other people in the room. "Are there any objection to my plan?" Blaine raised his hand. "Umm, yes Blaine?"

"I nominate Santana to be our leader." He gave her a determined look.

"Well I don't think-"

"I second that." Kurt nodded his head.

"But-"

"Me too." Rachel reached out and shook Santana's hand. "Congratulations Santana, you're our new leader."

Santana was floored, this was not what she had envisioned, she had just wanted to make it to a new place and survive. Now she was suddenly responsible for three other people's lives and she didn't know what to think about that. Rachel saw that Santana had started to panic.

"Relax Santana. This doesn't mean that you have to babysit us. This only means that if we need to make a decision as a group, you're the one that have the final word. You're the one that organizes and decides what we have to do. Just like you were doing right now, before Blaine decided to make you our leader. So nothings changed, except that you now have a title to go with you bossing us around." She smiled at Santana and it was clear that she had calmed her down, she wasn't panicking any more. Rachel turned and looked at Blaine and Kurt. "I think we all should go to bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Kurt yawned.

"Yeah I'm beat. Come on Blaine, I have to change your bandage before we go to bed. Night girls."

"Night Kurt."

After the boys had left, Rachel grabbed Santana' hands and looked her right in the eyes. "I believe in you Santana. There's no one better to lead our group than you and I trust you with my life."

Santana suddenly had this strange urge to cry, but she pushed it down and instead opted to hug Rachel (but only to get her to shut up about all this mushy stuff.) She tried to secretly dry away a stray tear without Rachel noticing it. Rachel saw it anyway, but she didn't say anything about it. Instead she squeezed Santana's hand and started to walk up the stairs to their bedroom.

"Lets go to bed."

* * *

Early the next morning Santana and Kurt went through the tool shed and the garage to find things that they would need for their pending journey. Blaine and Rachel were still inside, packing food and necessary supplies into their backpacks. Santana found some useful things in the shed and when they opened up the garage they were met by the sight of an old rusty blue Ford pick-up truck standing there. Santana smiled.

"Maybe if we're lucky we could get that piece of junk to work." But when she tried the driver door, it was locked. "Perfect!" Was it really too much to ask for to have a little bit of luck, after everything they had been through already? Santana quickly started to look around for the keys, but abruptly stopped when she heard a high pitch scream coming from Kurt.

Kurt had ignored the instructions, Santana had given him earlier that day, to not leave her side. He had, without thinking too much about it, wandered further into the back of the garage, where he had found a door. He knew that he probably should get Santana, but his curiosity won and he opened the door. Before he knew what was happening he was standing face to face with a huge zombie, who immediately attacked him. All Kurt could do was to scream in fear, as he fell down to the cement floor with the zombie on top of him. He desperately tried to push it away, so he could run to safety, but the guy was so heavy that he had more than enough with keeping it from biting him. He could feel that his arms were giving away, because of the weight of the other guy on top of him. He certainly wasn't strong enough to hold the zombie away from himself much longer. All he could think about was that this was it, he was going to die and that he had been to busy today to tell Blaine how much he loved him. He felt his arms give away and saw the zombies gaping mouth coming towards him.

When Santana heard the girly scream coming from Kurt, she quickly grabbed Finn's gun and ran to the other side of the car. She saw the open door in the back of the garage and the outline of two struggling bodies on the floor. She could see that, what she believed to be, Kurt was losing the battle against the other one. So Santana just went with her instinct and aimed the gun to shoot the one on top, hoping that she had picked the right one.

As Kurt was about to give up the fight, he heard a gun shot and then his whole face was covered in blood from the zombies head. The body he was holding up went limb and then it sagged down on top of him. Not long after that Santana came running and pushed the body away and helped him up. He could see that she was furies and she immediately started screaming at him.

"I told you to stay by my side Kurt! What were you thinking?!" Kurt didn't know what to say and he looked down guiltily. Santana rolled her eyes at his behaviour, because he was acting like a five-year old that had been caught stealing cookies. She quickly took Kurt's hand and dragged him outside and mumbled out. "We'll have to get you cleaned up."

When neither Blaine or Rachel came running out to see what had happened, Santana turned around to face Kurt again. "I don't want them to know about this if we can hide it." Kurt nodded in agreement. Santana led him to a water hose beside the house and told him to close his eyes and then she hosed him down. When she was finished Kurt looked like a miserable drowned cat and Santana almost laughed, but she had more pressing issues to take care of.

"We'll have to try to sneak you back into the house, so you can get some dry clothes. Come on!" Kurt didn't move, so Santana grabbed Kurt's hand and led him silently back to the front door.

When they were standing safely inside the hall, Santana found out why nobody had come running because of the gun shot. Rachel had apparently put on her Broadway song collection as high as she could in the kitchen, so it was no wonder they hadn't heard anything. Santana quickly whispered to Kurt to hurry up and get upstairs to change and then to come back down. She waited impatiently for him to return and kept glancing worriedly at the kitchen door for any sign of Blaine or Rachel. Finally Kurt came down the stairs and Santana hurriedly dragged him outside again. He didn't look like he wanted to and Santana couldn't blame him for that, but she needed his help to get rid of the zombie laying inside the garage.

"We can't bury his body since we haven't got a lookout this time, but I think that we can manage to dump him inside the tool shed?" Kurt just nodded. He looked like he wanted to disappear, but he stayed and helped Santana move the dead man to the shed. Santana dusted off her hands when they had successfully gotten rid of the zombie and looked at Kurt. "I know that you want to get back inside, but we have to check out the rest of garage first. We still have to look for the car keys and see if there are other things we can use." Kurt nodded again. Santana knew that she probably should be a little concerned about the fact that Kurt hadn't said a word since the attack, but she had more important things to worry about so she didn't question it.

They went back inside the garage and searched everywhere for the keys, but they still couldn't find them. They did find some useful stuff and to Santana's delight she found a weapon safe inside the back room where the zombie had been, but when she went to open it, it was locked. That was the last drop for Santana and she started to kick and punch the stupid thing. Why was everything locked anyway, they were in the middle of nowhere, who was going to steal something here?

Kurt quickly came up from behind and put his arms around Santana to get her to stop. He murmured in a low voice into her ear. "Stop Santana, you're only going to hurt yourself." He hugged her tightly and that triggered something inside Santana that made her break down. She had tried to be strong, but everything was going wrong and now she let herself cry in the arms of Kurt, who tried to comfort her the best he could. After a while she untangled herself from Kurt's embrace and dried her eyes. She quickly looked at Kurt, who also had tears running down his cheeks, before she looked down and mumbled out a quiet "Thank you." She then quickly looked up again and pointed at Kurt. He could clearly see the fire in her eyes.

"This never happened!" Kurt gave her a sad smile.

"Never happened, got it."

Santana shook her head and looked at the weapon safe. "We really need that key." She looked back at Kurt, who reluctantly started to speak.

"I really don't want to do this, but maybe we should check if that dead guy has the key?" That made Santana smile and to Kurt's big surprise, she hugged him.

"That's a brilliant idea Kurt!"

It probably was, but Kurt wasn't trilled about going back to that thing that had almost killed him. Luckily for him it looked like Santana didn't have any qualms digging through that dead guys pockets. Kurt almost jumped ten feet in the air in fear, when Santana suddenly shouted in triumph and showed him the little key she had found. They hurried back to the garage and they both smiled when the key fit inside the safe lock and the door swung open. When Santana saw the content of the weapon safe, she turned to Kurt and they both laughed in joy over their discovery. Maybe their luck had finally changed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Warning for chapter 5: **Violence

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Santana felt like she finally could breathe a little bit easier when she and Kurt were back inside the house again. They had come across some good stuff in the back room inside the garage. They had even found a weapon safe and to Santana's relief they got it opened with a key, that she had found in the pocket of the dead guy that had tried to kill Kurt. They still didn't know who that guy was, but they both guessed that it might have been the owner of the house. Maybe he heard about the outbreak in San Francisco and had decided to get his guns to protect himself, but then he had turned and that was why the house had been empty when they arrived there. Santana had decided that they wouldn't tell the other two about what really happened inside that garage, she would instead just tell them a made up story about how they found the weapon safe. Santana really didn't think that they would ask about anything else then the fact that they were now the proved owners of a hunting rifle and a hand gun in addition to Finn's gun. The safe had also contained ammunition, which had made Santana so happy that she had hugged Kurt for the second time that day.

Blaine and Rachel had been pleasantly surprised that they had managed to find weapons, even Rachel was happy about it. Because even though she didn't like them, she knew that they needed something to protect themselves with when they were forced to leave the safety of the house. Still she was relived when Santana told her that she didn't have to use a gun if she really didn't want to, since they also had found some other things she could use to defend herself with. She had been given the choice between two hunting knives, an ax and a baseball bat. Rachel didn't know how to use any of them, but she would rather use on of those instead of a gun. She really hated guns.

The only thing that was bringing them down was the fact that they still hadn't found the car keys to the beat up pick-up truck that was standing inside the garage, but they had all agreed to stop looking for them after they had searched everywhere in the house for the keys. Blaine had suggested that they could break one of the windows and then maybe try to hot wire the truck, but they quickly gave up on that idea since nobody knew how to start a car without a key. Kurt had relentlessly teased Santana about her claiming to be from Lima Heights Adjacent and not being able to hot wire a car. Santana had answered him back by threatening to show him what people from Lima Heights Adjacent could do to pretty little girls like him. Luckily for Kurt, Rachel had stopped Santana and suggested that they instead should help pack the rest of their belongings into their own backpacks. Santana had reluctantly agreed while glaring at Kurt the whole time.

When everything was packed and ready to go, they all sat down and decided that the best thing was for them to start travelling the next day. They stayed up a while longer after that, but the atmosphere inside the house felt so heavy and tense that they all gladly went to bed.

* * *

The little group started walking early the next morning. The four of them were all carrying a backpack each, with their own clothes and some supplies. They had all agreed the day before that Santana should keep Finn's gun. Blaine had opted to take the other hand gun, because he was the only one beside Santana that knew how to shoot. Since neither Kurt or Rachel knew how to handle a gun, they had both decided to take one of the two hunting knives each, to defend themselves with if they needed to. Blaine and Santana had tried to teach them how to use on of the handguns, but they had refused to try. So instead they had given Kurt and Rachel strict orders to stay behind them if anything should happen, since that was the best way for Blaine and Santana to protect them. Since no one was using the hunting rifle Santana had it strapped to her backpack and Blaine had taken the ax and the baseball bat in his. They were all anxiously looking around, as they headed for the main road.

They had to walk for quite a while before they finally reached the normally busy road, but right now there were no cars anywhere to be seen. The fact that they didn't see any life at all frightened them even more. They quickly discussed amongst themselves which way to take and they settled on getting as far away from San Francisco as possible, since they knew that the city was overrun by zombies. Santana was the first to start walking, Blaine and Kurt followed closely behind her. They had barely walked five steps before Kurt stopped them.

"Santana! Rachel isn't following us." Santana stopped and turned around to look back at Rachel, who was still standing at the cross-road looking at a sign. Santana grumbled and quickly walked back to Rachel, she was irritated by the unnecessary delay.

"What are you waiting for?" Rachel pointed to the sign. Santana looked up at it and shook her head. "Yeah, so what?" Rachel looked back at her like she was stupid.

"This is a highway Santana and that sign-" She pointed to the sign she had been looking at. "tells us that it is illegal for pedestrians to walk on this road." Santana rolled her eyes at Rachel's unnecessary explanation of the sign, but that only made Rachel angry.

"Santana I can't afford getting arrested. I have a reputation to uphold. Many people look up to me, I'm their role model. It's important for me to avoid having a police record since I'm famous."

Really Santana tried not to laugh, but when she heard Kurt and Blaine giggle behind her, she couldn't stop the laughter from bubbling up. Rachel looked like she wanted to murder them all.

When they finally stopped laughing, Santana dried away some stray tears that had escaped.

"Good one Berry. Maybe you should have been a comedian instead of being on Broadway, then I might have survived seeing one of your shows without wanting to die." She then gestured to the empty highway. "We have been here for almost thirty minutes now and we haven't seen one car, so I highly doubt that anyone is going to arrest us for illegally walking on this highway. If we should be so "unlucky" as to meet a police car, I promise that I will pay your fine if we get one. So can you please stop being such a big baby and start walking." Santana didn't wait for a response and turned around to continue her walk. She almost didn't hear Rachel mumbling out a petulant.

"I can pay for it myself."

The longer they walked the scarier it seemed that they didn't meet any cars or people. The one positive side to this was that they hadn't seen any zombies either. The only sign of life they had seen and heard so far, was the constant chirping of birds in the trees they passed by. There were no houses anywhere along the highway, but they had seen several side roads that probably lead to some. Still they had decided to just continue their journey on the main road for now. After another hour without any sign of human life Santana turned to the others.

"We are really in the middle of nowhere. How did we end up here?" Rachel was the one who answered her.

"We didn't plan on ending up here Santana. We all panicked when we had to leave San Francisco in a hurry. Finn just kept on driving till our rental car started to choke because it had so little gas left." It looked like Santana was about to interject, so Rachel quickly continued. "And yes we passed several gas stations on the way here, but we were all too frightened to stop and fill up the tank. So when the car started to break down, Finn had to take of from the main road to find a place for us to take cover for the night. That's how we ended up here and No we still don't know where here is. We just drove to get away from the city and this is where we got stranded." Rachel waved around to emphasis her point.

Santana sighed and turned around and just kept on walking. She didn't know if she would have done anything differently if she had been awake, so she decided to save her strength and not wast them arguing with Rachel.

They had been waking for miles when Kurt excitedly shouted and pointed at something in the distance. "Is that a house?! Please say it's a house. I really could need some beauty sleep. I'm exhausted." Santana squinted her eyes to look at what he was pointing at. It looked like a building of some sort, but since it was located in the middle of a huge field she would have guess that it wasn't a house. Apparently Rachel didn't think so either.

"I don't think that is a house Kurt." Kurt's happy face quickly fell. As they came closer, it looked like the building was a little barn. Blaine turned to Santana.

"Should we go and check it out?"

"Nah, it looks old and I doubt that there's any food in there. We'll just use a lot of time and energy to get all the way over there and then back again." She looked at the other two. "Does anyone disagree with me?" They all shook their heads and Kurt looked crushed.

So they just kept on walking, but not long after they past the barn they spotted a bunch of cars standing on the road up ahead. It looked like there had been a big car accident that had resulted in both lanes being blocked off. It was apparent that no cars could get through on either sides and the whole road was littered with abandoned cars. Kurt smiled at the sight.

"Maybe we could find a car we can use and then drive back to one of the side roads we passed earlier. I for one is tired of walking." Blaine and Rachel looked like they liked that idea, but Santana had a bad feeling. She didn't like this, so she stopped walking.

"I have a bad feeling about this, I think we should try to go around." Kurt looked like Santana had tried to take away his favourite Kashmir sweater and then set it on fire.

"What! Are you serious? I can't walk any longer, my feet hurts. These shoes are not made for walking." He pointed down at his designer shoes. Santana had to admit that they didn't look like they would be very comfortable to walk in. "I want a car and I want it now!" Kurt was starting to sound like he was going to cry. Santana really didn't want to deal with a crying Kurt right now. So she just gave up.

"Fine, but I don't like this. So I demand that you're careful and that you all stay by my side and don't do anything without asking me first." They all nodded, but Santana wasn't so sure that they had listened to her. Kurt quickly started walking towards the huge car pile up.

Santana was keeping a watchful eye on everything, but she still didn't see anything suspiciously looking. When they reached the cars, Kurt was the first one to look inside one of them. What he saw was a lady sitting in the driver seat, it looked like she was sleeping. So he decided to knock on the window to see if he could wake her up. "Don't-" Santana tried to stop him, but she was too late. Kurt knocked and was rewarded with a zombie looking right at him. Kurt jumped back in fear when the zombie tried to attack him, but he calmed down when she was stopped by the car window. Kurt laughed nervously after recovering from the instant shock. The zombie kept trying to get out to kill him, but instead it somehow manage to hit the car horn. The sound from the horn was almost deafening in the silent surroundings. It got eerily quiet after the horn stopped, but suddenly then they all heard a frightening chorus of snarling and groaning starting up. Then at least thirty zombies popping up from behind the rest of the cars and when they saw the little group standing there, ready to get eaten, they quickly started heading towards them.

"RUN!" Santana didn't have to tell them that twice and they all turned around and ran as fast as they could away from the crash site. They didn't know where they were running to and they could hear the zombies chasing after them. Thankfully Santana already had a plan. "HEAD FOR THE BARN!"

The worst part was that they had to run through the grass field to get there and it slowed them down. Some of the zombies had almost caught up with them, so Santana ordered Kurt and Rachel to run ahead to the barn as fast as they could. Then she and Blaine turned around and started shooting some of the nearest zombies. When Rachel shouted that the barn door was open, they both turned around and ran as fast as they could to her. Rachel quickly closed the door after them and Kurt helped her push the bolt in place to lock the door from the inside. Then they both dropped down to the dirt floor and crawled to Santana and Blaine, who were laying panting in one of the corners.

"You have to be quiet." Rachel whispered. Santana send her a death glare back. She wasn't stupid, she had no plan of starting to scream at them right now. Even though she really wanted to tell them how she told them that she had a bad feeling about this from the start, but that could definitely wait till later. Because right now they could hear the zombies outside trying to get in. Santana was just praying that the barn door was solid enough to withstand their attacks.

From the moment the attacks started Santana had been intensely staring at the barn door with her gun raised in cased they would get in. So she almost shrieked in fear when she felt something take a hold of her arm. She quickly looked down to see that it was only Rachel's hand clutching her arm. Santana exhaled in relief. She wanted to scold Rachel for almost giving her a heart attack, but when she saw her frightened eyes she grabbed Rachel's hand instead and squeezed it. Rachel looked up at her with tears running down her cheeks and Santana felt her heart break at the sight. So she took Rachel in her arms and held her tight, while she listened to the zombies trying to break down the door.

When things finally seemed to calm down outside, Santana slowly turned to the other two and whispered. "We'll have to stay here tonight." Blaine nodded in silent agreement, Kurt didn't acknowledge that he had heard her. He had been hiding in Blaine's embrace from the moment he crawled to him and he hadn't looked at anybody else since. Santana just ignored him and continued. "I'll stay up to keep watch. You guys try to get some sleep." Blaine nodded again and Rachel just held on to Santana even tighter and kept on crying silently in her arms.

It was easier said than done to try to sleep when they still could hear the zombies roaming outside, but after a while Rachel stopped crying and nodded off. Santana could hear that both Blaine and Kurt also had drifted into dreamland. She was just happy that none of them were heavy snorers. Santana was desperately trying to stay awake, but she was so tired after their long walk so she eventually fell asleep.

She was wakened up by a loud bang coming from one of the barn's sides. The noise also woke up Rachel, who was about to scream, but Santana quickly put her hand over her mouth to stop her. That made Rachel panic and she started to fight back in fear, so Santana quickly leaned close to her ear and told her to be quiet. Rachel instantly calmed down when she heard Santana's voice, but she was still breathing heavily from the rough awakening. Santana could see that both of the boys were also awake and they looked terrified. Blaine tried to comfort Kurt as best he could, even though he was probably as scared as his husband was.

The banging continued for a long time and Santana was afraid that the barn walls were going to give away, she really hoped that barn could survive the constant assaults that the zombies were inflicting to its sides. After what felt like hours, the attacks finally stopped and Santana felt like her heartbeat slowed down a little bit. She didn't know how long they had been sleeping before the attack or how long it had lasted, but she could see small streams of daylight coming into the barn from various cracks in the walls. The sun had once again come up and they had survived the night.


	6. Chapter 6

******Warning for chapter 6: **Violence and Cursing

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

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**Chapter 6**

Santana knew that they had to somehow get out of the barn to find a safer place to stay, preferably somewhere with more food. She was trying to peer out of some of the bigger glitches in the walls. Of the little she could see it looked like most of the zombies had returned to the crash site, but there were still some lurking right outside. So she carefully walked back to the little group, who were sitting on the ground eating their breakfast in silence. She sat down beside them and when she got their attention, she whispered.

"We have enough food for at least two days in here, but I think we should try to get out of this place as soon as possible. It looks like most of those things are gone, but they could come back and I don't want to see if this piece of crap will survive another attack. We're lucky that the barn is still standing and that we're still alive after what happened yesterday. So I suggest that we'll try to escape today, by running as fast as we can over the field and away from the crash site. Then we can try to get back on the highway a little higher up, where we can take one of the side roads we passed by. I believe that's a better plan then trying to get around the cars, to continue further down this road." The others didn't argue, but Santana could see that both Rachel and Kurt looked petrified at the thought of going back outside again. She turned to look at Blaine.

"We'll have to try to avoid using our guns, when we try to get out of here. It looked like the zombies reacted to the sound of the car horn yesterday. So if we shoot, those that have gone back to the crash site will probably come running after us when they hear the guns firing. Therefore I suggest that we use the ax and the baseball bat to get away, but if we have to we'll use our guns." Blaine nodded. Santana turned back to Rachel and Kurt, who now looked like they were going to pass out.

"You two have to stay behind Blaine and I, but if you get attacked you'll have to use your knives!" Rachel was biting her lower lip, but nodded. Kurt was just looking at the ground and slowly started to rock back and forth. Santana was about to ask him if he had heard her, but Blaine stopped her by touching her arm and whispered. "I'll talk to him."

Blaine got up and walked over to Kurt. He quietly sat down beside him and started to whisper reassuring words in his ear. It looked like it worked and Kurt calmed down a little bit. He glanced up at Santana and nodded his head in consent of her plan. Santana gave him an half-hearted smile back, she understood his fear. She was fucking scared herself, but she had to be strong for them all if they should have any chance of getting out of the barn alive.

They quickly got their backpacks ready for the getaway. Santana and Blaine were standing in front of the door, with Kurt and Rachel right behind them. "Ready?" Santana whispered and everyone nodded. Blaine opened the bolt and tried to carefully slide the door open without too much noise. The sight that greeted them were a couple of zombies staring right back at them.

Santana and Blaine immediately attacked them, before they could alert the other zombies. Blaine quickly succeeded in killing one of them, but had to help Santana with hers since the baseball bat proved to be relatively insufficient at killing zombies with.

They could see that several other zombies had noticed them and were heading towards the little group from further down the field. So they quickly started to run in the opposite direction of them and the crash site. When they finally made it down to the main road, it looked like only one of the zombies had kept the same pace as them.

So Blaine and Santana turned around and attacked it head on and managed to kill it relatively easily together. They could still see more zombies coming after them, but they moved much slower than the one they had just killed. So they were in no immediate danger, but Santana didn't want to take any chances. "Lets get out of here!" She turned around and they all started to run to get as fare away, from the crash site and the zombies, as possible. After a while they slowed down, since they couldn't see any zombies behind them. Rachel was the first to get her breath back.

"That was weird."

"What the zombies?" Santana looked at her a little bewildered.

"Well yeah, but what I was referring to was that some of those zombies were slower than those from yesterday." The other three just looked at her like she had lost her mind, so Rachel tried to explain further. "What I'm trying to say is that yesterday you and Blaine had to kill a lot more zombies, since several of them almost caught up with us. Today only one of them could keep up with us." Her speech didn't amuse Santana at all.

"Is that what you're worried about? Slow zombies? Seriously? You should be freaking happy about that. If they were any faster, we would still be running for our lives. So just shut up and keep walking!" Santana didn't feel like she had any more time to waste on Rachel's stupid pondering. What she needed to do was to find a safe place, where they could take cover from those hideous things that wanted to eat them alive.

"Well I think it's strange." Rachel mumbled under her breath, but Santana chose to ignore it because they had reached one of the side roads they had decided to walk past yesterday. She really hoped they would find an empty house that they could sleep in for the night. They desperately needed to get some more sleep after the dreadful night they had experienced. To Santana's dismay there didn't seem to be any houses nearby, only a lot of fields.

When they came to a smaller side road made of dirt, they all agreed to try to see if it led to a house they hopefully could stay in. After some more walking everyone smiled when they spotted a house in the distance, but Santana's smile faltered the closer they got. The house, if you could call it that, looked like a dump. The paint was peeling off and the whole place looked like it was going to fall down any second. She didn't like the look of it at all.

"Guys I think we should turn around. I have a bad feeling about this." Kurt immediately stopped and looked at her like she was insane.

"Santana there's a house right there. A house we could sleep in for the night. Yes, I agree that it looks awful and I would rather check into a luxurious hotel, but this isn't the time to get picky. We need a place to sleep and this place is good enough for that, so stop being so negative." Santana rolled her eyes at Kurt. He was not the right person to tell her to be less picky. Since both Rachel and Blaine sided with Kurt after a rather hefty discussion. Santana had no other choice than to just follow after them, but she was holding her gun ready in case of any trouble.

Kurt was about to walk into the front yard when two men came running out from inside the house, with their rifles pointing straight at them, that made Kurt freeze. The oldest of the two, pointed his rifle at Blaine.

"Get the fuck away from my property!" It looked like Rachel was about to say something, but stopped when the younger guy spoke.

"I'll give you 10 seconds to turn around and go back to where ever you came from. We don't want you here and if you don't listen, then we'll kill every single one of you!" Santana could see that they were dead serious, so she quickly grabbed Rachel and started to backtrack. She kept her gun pointed at the two men in front of her, the whole time. Beside her, Blaine also had his gun pointed at them and he was quickly dragging Kurt away with him. When Santana felt that they were safely out of the two guys shooting range, she ordered everyone to turn around and then they ran as fast as they could away from the house.

Everyone was out of breath by the time they finally stopped running, but when Santana could breath properly again she didn't wast a second before she screamed at them all for not listening to her. She let out all her pent-up aggression on the three others, because she had finally had enough of them not listening to her warnings. She was repeatedly yelling stuff like "What did I tell you!", "You're a bunch of idiots!" and "All Lima Heights Adjacent on your asses!" over and over again.

Rachel was the one that managed to calm her down, when she pointed out that it was starting to get darker and Santana really didn't feel like spending the night outdoors. So she gave them all a final death glare and demanded that they all should listen to her the next time or she would just let them die for being so stupid. When nobody dared to say anything back, Santana grumbled in annoyance and told them to get their butts moving if they didn't want to get eaten.

She was still angry, Rachel had stopped her outburst before she was finished, so she kept mumbling under her breath about brain-dead friends and crazy people. The three others wisely stayed away from her. They chose to walk after her, at a safe distance, so they didn't have to listen to her constant insults. After some time it seemed that she had started to calm down, but then she suddenly laughed and shook her head. Rachel couldn't stop herself from asking.

"What's so funny?" Santana turned to look back at her and gave them all a mournful smile.

"I was just thinking how this isn't fair at all." She pointed back in the direction of the house they had left behind them. "How can it be fair that garbage like that has survived, but good people have died." Rachel knew she was thinking about Brittany. Santana shook her head. "It's good to know what kind of people that are still alive, from now on we can't trust anyone!" She turned around and kept walking. The other three just followed after her in silence.

They were all a little apprehensive when they came to the next side road, but the daylight was fading fast and everyone knew that they had no other choice left. So they followed the new road and hoped they would find some kind of refuge soon. They all felt relief wash over them when they saw a little house in the distance. Santana noted that it didn't look half as bad as the first house, it actually looked rather cozy, but she wasn't taking any chances this time. So she raised her hand to stop the others and turned around.

"This time we do it my way!" She gave them all a stern glare. "Is that clear?" They all nodded and Kurt looked down in shame. Santana turned to Blaine.

"I'll go first to see if I can find out if there's anyone home. You'll stay here and protect those two." She pointed at Kurt and Rachel. Rachel looked a little offended, but Santana didn't care about that. She was more worried about the fading sun and the possibility that they had to sleep outside. So she quickly turned around and headed for the house. The closer she got, the smaller she felt. What if there were someone home? Or even worse, what if they had turned to zombies. Suddenly she regretted telling Blaine to stay behind, it would have been much better to have him beside her, but it was too late now.

Santana was standing in the driveway and she hoped that it was a good sign that she didn't see a car standing there. She carefully walked around the house to try to see if she could get a glimpse inside. The house looked empty and dead. There were no lights or movement inside, as far as Santana could see. So she walked back to the front and waved to get the other three to come join her in the driveway. Kurt looked excited, but Santana gestured for him to keep quiet. Then she whispered to Blaine.

"I'll go and knock on the door. You have to cover me in case someone try to shot me." That made Kurt drop his giddy smile. Santana would have laughed, but she was too nervous. Rachel gave her a weak smile, but she didn't feel like returning it. Instead she turned around and walked to the front door. Santana hesitated for a second before she knocked. She even tried to hold her breath after she knocked, to see if she could hear anything from inside, but she heard nothing. So she knocked again, but with the same result. After the third time, she walked back to Blaine.

"It doesn't look like there's anyone home and the door is clearly locked. I didn't see any windows that were open either, so what do you think we should do?"

"Maybe break a window?" Blaine suggested.

"Yeah, we could do that, but then we'll have to barricade it after. I don't want to risk a zombie getting inside." They continued to discuss what they should do amongst the two of them and ignored Kurt's attempts to get their attention. But after a particular hard poke in one of Santana's side ribs, she snapped at him.

"What do you want Kurt! We're trying to find a way inside." Kurt took a step back, because Santana's eyes looked like they were shooting fire at him. Then he cleared his throat and gave her a triumphant smirk.

"I'm sorry to interrupted you two, but I just wanted to tell you that Rachel found a way inside without breaking anything." Then he pointed to where Rachel was standing smiling in the now open front door, with a key dangling from her finger.

"What!" Santana looked at her in awe, she didn't know if she wanted to give her a big hug or strangle her for being so reckless. She never got the time to decide which she wanted to do, since they all froze when they heard that bone freezing snarl coming from inside the house. She could see Rachel staring at them with wide eyes and her cocky smile was gone. The second Santana saw the zombie appear from behind Rachel, she pointed her gun straight at Rachel and shouted.

"GET DOWN!"

Rachel quickly dropped down to the ground and Santana frantically started to shoot in the direction of the zombie, but she only managed to hit it in the chest and that didn't seem to bother it too much. So Santana ran towards Rachel, as she kept shooting to try to slow the zombie down. She could hear Rachel crying, but all she could think about was that she had to hit that bastard in the head before it reached Rachel. Her heart was hammering so fast in her chest, that she felt like she was going to have a heart attack. The zombie was about to bend down and grab a hold of Rachel, when Santana got close enough to put a bullet in the zombies head.

The zombie fell on top of Rachel and that resulted in Rachel panicking. Santana was certain that her scream could have broken glass. Blaine, who had been right behind Santana, hurried to get Rachel away from the dead body. The first thing Rachel did, when he had helped her up, was to throw herself into Santana's arms. Where she continued to cry, while she sobbed out broken thank you's to Santana for saving her life.

Blaine decided to check out the rest of the house while Kurt stayed behind to keep an eye out for Santana, who had more than enough with holding Rachel in her arms. When Blaine came out again he and Kurt dumped the dead body in some bushes close by, while Santana took Rachel inside. She tried to ask if Rachel wanted to sit down, but her only response was to tightened her grip on Santana and cry even harder. So Santana kept holding her till the boys returned. Kurt came into the living room, skipping like a little girl and his eyes was gleaming.

"There's hot water, electricity and some more food. This is awesome! I have to go take a shower, I haven't had a shower in over a day. I feel so dirty!" Santana rolled her eyes.

"I think Rachel should get the first shower, she deserves it." It looked like Kurt was about to disagree, but when Blaine shook his head Kurt sat down and pouted like a four-year old instead. Santana ignored him and tried to get Rachel attention.

"How about a nice warm shower Rachel, wouldn't that be good?" Rachel crying subsided a little bit, but she shook her head. Kurt smiled in joy and was about to get up, but stopped when Santana send him one of her "Don't fuck with me!" glares. She tried again, this time more nicely. She really wanted Rachel to stop crying, but only because she was totally ruining her sweater with all her tears.

"Are you sure Sweety?" Rachel kept clinging to her and nodded. Well then she had to play dirty. "Don't you want to get rid of that zombie blood you have in your hair?" There really wasn't any blood in Rachel's hair, but she didn't know that. The lie did however get Rachel to squeak in horror and she shot out of Santana's embrace.

"Blood? Blood! Where?" She was frantically trying to look over her shoulder, to see where the blood was located. Blaine decided to help Santana.

"It's in you hair, but you can't see it yourself since it's in the back."

Kurt send his husband a disgruntled stare, he really wanted that shower himself. He had been in Rachel's place before and if you asked him he thought his situation had been much worse than hers. So he didn't see what the big deal was and why Santana tried to baby Rachel, when she had almost killed him for doing the same thing and then hosed him down with cold water afterwards. This was not fair! He desperately wanted to say something, but he was too afraid of what Santana would do to him. So he kept quiet and hoped Rachel would stop acting like a diva soon so he could get a well deserved shower, he had after all moved that disgusting dead zombie today.

It looked like Rachel was on the verge of crying again and Santana didn't think she could handle more tears today. So she snapped.

"Just go take a shower Rachel!"

That apparently didn't help, since it made her start crying again and she sniffled out something that Santana didn't understand. She really wanted to shout at her to get the fuck into that shower, but she tried to stay calm instead.

"What did you say?" Rachel tried to stop crying and looked up at Santana and mumbled out.

"I'm too afraid to go alone." Santana tried not to start laughing and covered it up by coughing instead. She sighed in defeat.

"Fine, I'll go with you." That made Rachel smile and she grabbed Santana's hand and started to drag her up the stairs to the bathroom. Blaine smiled at them, but Kurt looked like he wanted to murder them all. When Blaine tried to talk to him, he just turned around and stared at the living room wall. Blaine knew from experience that it was best to leave him alone, so he decided to make them all something to eat instead.

Outside the bathroom door Santana had tried to tell Rachel that she would be standing right outside the door while she was showering, but Rachel had started to cry again so she had reluctantly followed her inside. She was now desperately trying not to look at Rachel, but she was failing miserably. Because there were no way she couldn't take her eyes off that perfect soaped up water glistening body, that was standing in front of her inside the shower. Santana had never understood why Quinn had given Rachel names like RuPaul, Man Hands, Stubbles and Treasure Trail in high school, there was nothing remotely manly about her at all.

She had always wondered why Rachel had kept hiding her awesome body beneath all those hideous clothes she was wearing in high school. She knew for a fact that Rachel, even back then, had a banging body. Because she might have peeked at it a time or two in the showers after gym class. She was after all a hormonal teenager struggling with her sexuality back then. For a long time that was the closest she had come to see another girl naked, before she started experimenting with Brittany. So yeah she knew that Rachel had a hot body, but since high school it had matured even more and now it was just perfect in Santana's mind and the sight was slowly driving her crazy.

Santana had desperately tried to look away when Rachel had started to soap up her body, but it didn't work. Because all she wanted to do was to watch Rachel touch her body and wonder how those hands would feel against her own body. She was relieved when Rachel finally turned of the shower and stepped out. But when Rachel started to dry herself off, Santana knew she had to take care of herself because she was so turned on that everything Rachel did was driving her insane. She really hoped that Rachel didn't demand to sleep in the same bed as her, that could get awkward really fast. Fuck! Who was she trying to fool? Rachel hadn't slept alone since Finn had died. So Santana had to come up with something to get her out of the bathroom, because she desperately needed to take care of the problem she was having before they went to bed later. As on cue Kurt hammered on the bathroom door.

"Are you finished soon? I need a shower. I'm dying out here. Hurry up Rachel!"

Rachel was now fully clothed, to Santana's surprise. Apparently she had been to busy thinking to notice, but now she got an excellent idea. She opened the bathroom door, while Rachel was brushing her hair. She quickly stepped out and grabbed Kurt, ignored his yelping and whispered.

"You're going to take Rachel down to the living room, because I need a shower right now!" Kurt stared at her, he didn't look pleased.

"WHAT-" Santana hushed him and Kurt whispered angrily. "Why would I do that?" Santana hissed back at him.

"Because I had to watch Rachel shower and if I don't take a cold shower immediately, I'm going to kill someone and that might be you!" Kurt first looked like a question mark, but then it hit him and Santana had to punch him to stop him from laughing so loud. Kurt dried some of the tears that had escaped and hummed with suppressed laughter.

"I'll take her down, but you owe me big Lopez." Santana looked angrily between him and the bathroom door and spat out.

"I don't owe you shit Hummel! Have you forgotten that I saved your life back in that garage. If somebody owes someone something, it would be you. You owe me!" Kurt look unimpressed, but he nodded anyway as Rachel came out from the bathroom. She looked stunning and she hummed out.

"The bathroom is all yours Kurt." That made Kurt look even more grumpy. So Santana hurried inside the bathroom and locked the door behind her, just to be on the safe side, in case Kurt changed his mind. She could hear a confused Rachel asking Kurt why he was taking her downstairs and an annoyed Kurt answering with something she didn't catch. Because all Santana could think about was to get into that shower to get rid of that stupid throbbing between her thighs.

She was originally just going to take a cold shower, but when she finally was surrounded by that marvellous heat she forgot all about that. So instead she just gave in and let her mind indulge in one of her favourite fantasy, as her left hand travelled down her body. Her mind stated to drift and suddenly she was picturing Rachel instead of Brittany and when she got her release it was Rachel's name that tumbled out of her lips. Santana immediately felt the guilt wash over her and she felt even more dirty after the shower, than she had felt before she took it.

Santana couldn't look Rachel in the eyes, when she came into the living room. She didn't even feel like laughing when Kurt came stumping down the stairs, shouting in dismay that they had used up all the hot water. Blaine managed to calm him down by suggesting that they could take a shower together, when the warm water had returned.

Rachel had been looking at Santana the whole time since she came down from the bathroom. She was worriedly biting her bottom lip and contemplating why Santana was so quiet. It didn't help that Santana remained silent the rest of the evening. When they all went to bed, Rachel couldn't sleep and she kept looking over at Santana. She wanted so desperately to ask her what was bothering her. Still she pretended to be asleep, when Santana turned over to look at her.

Santana apparently thought that she was really sleeping, because she quickly climbed out of bed. Rachel was starting to panic that Santana was going to leave the room, she really didn't want to be alone, but Santana only walked over to her backpack and opened it. Then she took something out and climbed back into the bed again. Rachel could just make out that she was holding something that looked like a picture in her hands and she was repeatedly stroking the picture with her thumb. Rachel barely heard the muffled sobs that was coming from Santana.

Then it hit her. Santana was probably looking at a picture of Brittany, because she was missing her. That made her feel guilty for not thinking of Finn. He had only been dead for nearly five days, but Rachel felt like it has been much longer since he had passed away. To be honest she had tried to repress it, she didn't want to think about Finn like that. Especially that he had almost killed her. She knew that it hadn't been the real him trying to do that, but she still didn't want to think about it. It hurt too much.

So instead of taking care of her own grief, she decided to take care of Santana's. She quietly crawled over to Santana's side of the bed and slipped under her duvet and then hugged her tight. At the first touch Santana went stiff in her arms, but soon she melted into Rachel's embrace and started to cry out loud. All Rachel could do was to hold her in her arms and comfort her till her cries died down and her breathing evened out. Rachel could tell that Santana had fallen asleep and she dried away her own tears. She soon followed after Santana into dreamland, hoping that tomorrow would bring something better.


	7. Chapter 7

******Warning for chapter 7:** Bad childhood memories and Homophobic slur

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

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**Chapter 7**

The next day Santana acted like nothing had happened and ignored Rachel completely. Rachel tried not to show it, but it hurt that Santana dismissed her like that. She knew that she shouldn't let it bother her so much, because Brittany had talked to her so many times before about Santana's lacking ability to show her emotions. She remembered that Brittany had told her that Santana could often change from hot to cold in an instant. One second she would give you a glimpse into her soul and the next she would turn around and treat you like crap. Brittany had warned Rachel about that happening and that it was just Santana defence mechanism kicking in, whenever Santana tried desperately to avoid getting hurt by others. So if Santana had given even Brittany a hard time, than Rachel couldn't expect more from her. Still Rachel had decided that she wouldn't give up on her just yet.

* * *

Blaine, Kurt, Rachel and Santana had agreed that the best thing to do, was to stay in that empty house for as long as possible. Especially since Blaine had found even more food stacked into a kitchen pantry, that was standing inside a storage room in the basement. Still they didn't have a lot to do during the day and nobody wanted to go outdoors if they didn't have to. So they spent their time reading some of the books and magazines they had found laying around the house. In the evenings they usually just talk among themselves. For the most parts Santana kept quiet and didn't bother to answer with more than "None of your business!" or "Quit bothering me!" if someone tried to include her in the conversation they were having. After a series of failed attempts they just gave up, but Rachel still refused to do that. So Blaine kept muttering to her "Courage!" every time Santana snapped at her for trying. Rachel really hoped that Santana would crack soon, because she was certain that she would punch Blaine the next time he whispered "Courage." to her again, it was getting really irritating.

Surprisingly to them all, it was Kurt that got Santana talking again. He, Rachel and Blaine had been sitting in the living room talking as usual, when Kurt turned to the grumpy looking girl.

Santana was sitting in a lonely armchair at the opposite side of the room, trying to read a book about the Enron scandal that she had found tucked away in the basement. She now knew why it had been put there, because it was so fucking boring that's why. So when Kurt tried to talk to her, she actually welcomed the interruption with open arms, anything was better than what she was doing at the moment.

"So Santana we know why Blaine can use a gun." Santana furrowed her brow, she didn't know what Kurt was talking about. Kurt saw her questioning look.

"Umm you probably didn't hear his story since you were reading, but Blaine learned to shoot in an attempt to bond with his father after he found out that Blaine was gay." Santana looked at Blaine, who gave her a weak smile back.

"It was one of his many ideas to make me straight, but as you all can see it didn't work." He pointed to his husband and Santana laughed at Kurt's indignant look. Kurt huffed and directed his attention back to Santana.

"What I was trying to ask, before my husband so nicely interrupted, was how did you learn to shoot?" Santana was about to give him a witty remark, but he beat her to it. "And don't tell me it was because you grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. We all know that only rich people live in Lima Heights Adjacent." Santana gave him a sarcastic smile back.

"Fine, I'll play nice and tell you the truth." She got up from her chair and threw the book into the roaring fireplace. She didn't know why they needed a fire when they had electricity, but Kurt and Rachel had blabbered about it being nice and romantic or some lame shit like that. So Blaine had lit a fire for them which really wasn't necessary, but Santana hadn't bothered to say anything against it either. At least it helped her get rid of that stupid book. Rachel looked mildly shocked at her behaviour, but she didn't say anything. So Santana took a seat beside Blaine and started to tell them her story.

"My papá was what you could call a nature lover. Whenever he had time of from work, he would go on these long camping trips in the woods. He would never come back home empty-handed, because he was an eager hunter and an excellent sport fisher. He hunted everything that he could, even illegally some times. He loved going on those trips, but Papá had always wanted a son that he could take with him. Still he had been given three daughters instead. After the birth of their third child, they had been told that they couldn't get more kids. So when mamá miraculously got pregnant with me, my papá put all his hopes and dreams into me being the boy he had always wanted. He even named me after his favourite guitarist Carlos Santana, since he was so confident that I would be a boy. He was so disappointed when I was born as a girl. He left the hospital before he got the chance to even hold me. Instead he decided to go camping in the woods for a whole week, before he talked to anyone in his family again. All because he was so disappointed that I was a girl." Santana had been staring at the living room carpet the whole time and when she looked up she could see her friends shocked faces, so she looked down again and continued.

"When he came back he had obviously decided that it didn't matter that I wasn't a boy. I was either way going to be the boy he never got. The moment I learned to walk, he started dragging me with him on his camping expeditions. At first I didn't mind going with him because that was the only time he spent with me, since he was always too busy working. But after the first time I saw him kill an animal, I hated those trips." Santana was lost in her memories and didn't register the other three in the room any more.

"I was only six years old when I saw him kill my favourite animal, a white-tailed deer. I was inconsolable. I had seen him kill other animals before, but the reason I was taking it so hard this time was because I actually believed my papá had killed Bambi's mother." She smiled, but that smile quickly dropped.

"I believed that because Bambi was my favourite Disney movie back then, but I have never watched it again after I saw him kill that deer. Still my papá didn't understand why I was crying. He just told me to stop. "Santana crying is for babies! Now man up and help me cut it open." He really believed that showing emotions, was a sign of weakness. He always said to me that "Only women cries!" Santana dared to look up again and saw that Rachel had tears running down her cheeks. She quickly averted her eyes away from Rachel.

"I remember the first time he made me kill a deer by myself. I was hoping he wouldn't make me kill one, because of how I reached to him killing one. He actually didn't bring me along to watch him hunt deer again before I had turned twelve, that's when he told me that I was old enough to kill one by myself. He had made me kill a lot of other animals and birds before that, but he had never asked me to kill something that big. Still I had probably killed more animals, birds and fishes than I had learned to count by then. I remember that he had taken me hunting for birds like goose, dove, duck and turkey. Small animals like rabbit and wild boar. If we had the opportunity my papá would even take me hunting for fox, raccoon, skunk, opossum, weasel, crow, coyote and groundhog. It didn't matter to him what we shot, as long as he we could kill something." Santana quickly glanced at Rachel again and it looked like she was about to throw up.

"Oh and of course we went fishing too, but for me the worst was when I had to kill that deer. I remember begging my papá not to have to do it, but he told me if I didn't kill that deer then I wasn't his kid. I loved him so much, even if he made me do things I didn't want to. So I did what I had to do and I killed that deer for my papá." Santana laughed humorlessly.

"I remember that all I wanted to do afterwards was to cry, but then he told me for the first time ever that he loved me and that he was really proved of me. I had never been so happy in my whole life, as I was in that moment. After that I did everything I could do to get him to tell me that again, all I wanted was for him to be proved of me. I was still heartbroken about killing that deer, but I didn't want my papá to see me crying ever again. So I went to Brittany to tell her about it, that was a big mistake." Santana looked up at the other three people in the room.

"You all know how much she loved animals and she got so angry at me for killing "Bambi". She cried and made me promise to never hunt again, but of course that didn't stop me. I couldn't disappoint my papá. So I kept hunting, but I never told Brittany about my hunting trips ever again." Santana sighed and glanced at Kurt, who looked miserable.

"So Kurt I hope that answers your question about how I learned to use a gun."

The three other people in the room were all drying their tears away and looking at her with pity in their eyes. That made Santana feel uncomfortable. This was the reason she tried to avoid telling anyone about herself, those pity looks they were giving her right now. She knew what came next. People always told her how sorry they were that she had such a terrible childhood. Then they would try to blame someone for it, preferably her papá or her mamá for letting him do that to her. Then they would try to analyze her and tell her that it was no wonder she was acting like she did with that upbringing. Some people had even told her that it probably was her papá's fault that she was a lesbian, since he had treated her like a boy for so long. Lets just say that he quickly demanded a restraining order after she was finished with him. So maybe most of those people had been some kind of therapist that she had been forced to see, because of her anger issues and for being kicked out of her home by her papá.

Santana could still vividly remember her last conversation with her papá, before being thrown out of her childhood home. He was screaming at her the whole time and then told her to get out of his house, because he hadn't raised her to be a dyke and that she was no longer his kid. She hadn't talked to him since. To be completely honest she hadn't talked to anyone in her family since then. Nobody wanted to talk to her. Even her own abuela, the one person in the world that had loved her the most, didn't want anything to do with her. The last thing she told Santana was that she was dead to her.

Santana didn't need any more people pitying her. So before they could say anything, because she saw that Rachel was about to open her big mouth, she stood up and left them sitting there.

"I'm going to bed."

She tried not to look at them and walked up the stairs and crawled into bed. Clinging desperately to her pillow that still smelled a little like Rachel, which didn't help her mood. So instead she turned around and lay there stared up at the ceiling, wondering what was wrong with her. She had never been this emotional or let herself be so vulnerable around other people. She had let herself be comforted by both Kurt and Rachel. She had even opened up to them and told them something she hadn't even told Brittany. Maybe that was the reason for her breakdowns - Brittany's death. She had tried to be brave, but she was feeling so lonely without Brittany. She had this constant hollow feeling inside her chest, like something was missing and there were nothing she could do about it.

* * *

Not long after Santana had stormed out of the living room, Kurt and Blaine had decided that it was best if Rachel was the one that talk to her. Rachel had reluctantly agreed, but she was really nervous that Santana would just ignore her again. It didn't help that the second she entered their bedroom, Santana turned away from her to look at the wall. Rachel kept telling herself that she could do this and she carefully sat down on their shared bed.

"I know that you probably don't want to talk to me and that's okay, but I just want you to know that I'm here for you if you need me. You're my best friend Santana and I want you to know that I love you." That made tears start running down Santana's cheeks, something Rachel didn't see since Santana wasn't facing her. So when Santana didn't say anything, Rachel started to get up from the bed, but stopped when Santana whimpered out a low.

"Don't leave." Rachel sat down again and looked at Santana.

"What?" Santana didn't turn around and Rachel quietly sighed when she didn't get a response, but smiled when she finally heard Santana whisper out.

"Could, could you just hold me?" Rachel didn't say anything, instead she lifted up Santana's duvet and slipped under it. Since Santana still refused to turn around, Rachel somehow ended up spooning her from behind so she could hold her tight. It felt a little strange at first, because she had never been the big spoon before, but it didn't feel wrong. So she held Santana in her arms, even after she had fallen asleep.

The next morning Rachel was afraid that Santana would ignore her again, but she was pleasantly surprised when Santana muttered out a quiet "Thank you." before she slipped out of bed. Those two words made Rachel's day and after a little awkward breakfast, everything seemed to go back to normal. Rachel was really happy that Santana wasn't as quiet as before, but that of course meant more insults and crude jokes. Still Rachel really didn't mind them, because she had actually missed it, so she didn't complain. She just hoped it was going to last for as long as possible.


	8. Chapter 8

******Warning for chapter 8: **Major character death, Violence and Cursing

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

**A/N:** Before you read this chapter I want to remind you of something: This is **NOT** a fluffy unicorn story!

* * *

**Chapter 8**

The mood in the house change for the worse when they found out that the food supply was rapidly decreasing. Nobody wanted to leave, but they knew that they had to. So the four of them sat down and after a long discussion they all agreed to stay two more days, before they chose to leave the safety of the house. Kurt used most of that time showering, since he didn't know when he would get the chance again.

It wasn't a particularly happy bunch that stood outside the house ready to go. It didn't help that Santana hadn't stopped shouting at them, for the last two days, to listen to her this time. So they all stood there, staring at the road that lay ahead of them. No one wanted to move. Blaine was the first one to finally give up and he walk towards the road.

"Come on guys. We need to find somewhere to stay. I don't want to sleep outside tonight." That got Kurt moving. Rachel and Santana followed closely behind him.

Santana really hadn't missed this. She was constantly keeping a watchful eye on everything and it was exhausting being on high alert all the time. Every sound or movement made her or one of the other three jump in fear of being attacked. She couldn't wait to get inside a house again, but to her irritation there were no houses beside the road at all. After hours of walking they finally came to a crossroad where a sign alerted them of a village nearby. Kurt started jumping up and down in joy, but Santana wasn't so thrilled.

"I don't think we should go there. We should try to find an empty house instead. For all we know that village could be crawling with zombies. I really don't have a good feeling about this." Apparently she was talking to idiots.

Kurt and Rachel wanted to go to the village, because they believed they could find a store that would have food and other things they needed. They even planed to find a car to transport it back to the house they had left, so the four of them could keep living there for a while longer.

Santana desperately tried to remind them that they had made her the leader and that she had been right about her gut feeling every time before, but they still didn't listen to her. Blaine wasn't being much help, even if he agreed with her. Because when she threatened to walk the other way without them, he pointed out to her that he would follow his husband wherever he went. Santana really didn't want to be left alone, so she reluctantly followed after them in the direction of the village. Muttering under her breath about her being the only one of them that wasn't insane.

They hadn't been walking for long when they heard rustling coming from some bushes beside the road. They all froze, but Santana and Blaine quickly pointed their guns at the sound. It turned out to only be a black cat jumping out of the bush and it quickly strode over the road to the other side. They all started to laugh in relief. Well everyone except for Kurt, who was stuttering about black cats crossing your path being bad luck.

Santana was making fun of him about the fact that he believing in that crap, but not in her gut feeling. When suddenly a zombie came charging through the same bush as the cat. Santana had lowered her gun so she wasn't prepared for the attack, but Blaine was ready and shot the zombie right between the eyes. It staggered and fell right in front of Kurt's feet, who started chanting "What did I tell you. What did I tell you" over and over again.

Santana tried to use that incident to convince them not to go to the village, but they refused to listen to her. Rachel and Kurt still thought they had made the perfect plan and no zombies were going to stop them. Santana could see the village in the distance and she really wasn't looking forward to going there. She reluctantly followed after the others, wishing that she had picked some smarter friends to go on a vacation with.

Santana got more and more anxious the closer they got and when they reached the village's welcoming sign, she stopped them. The sign stated that the village population was only one hundred and forty-nine at the moment. Santana was happy about that, but it was still a lot of potential zombies and she really didn't want to meet any of them. So she turned to look at Rachel, Kurt and Blaine.

"You all know that I didn't want to come here, but since we're here anyway you all need to listen to me." She glared at them till they nodded their agreement. She continued.

"We have to be really careful when we enter this village. There could be zombies here, but we also have to keep an eye out for humans too. We have all seen what piece of shit that has survived, so we need to stay alert. Blaine and I will go first, since we have guns." She pointed at Rachel.

"You and Kurt will follow after us. You two have to watch our backs. That means that you have to alert me or Blaine, if you see anyone or anything suspiciously looking behind us. We can't risk being surrounded. If we get so unlucky that we meet zombies, you three have to do what I tell you to do. We can't just start running away in different direction, if we do some of us might die. Our goal is to get in, find something to eat, maybe find a car to drive and then get as fast as possible out of this dump. Is this clear?" She looked around and they all nodded.

"Okay, let's go. Keep your eyes open and only speak if you absolutely have to."

As they began walking into the village Santana noted that it looked deserted, but her mind was still on constant alert. They didn't see anyone anywhere and it frighten her even more. They quickly found, what had to be, the only shopping street there and spotted a little food marked in the far corner of the street. They all smiled, but it quickly vanished when they came to the middle of the street.

Rachel gave out a little squeaked in horror and everybody stopped and looked at what she was staring at. The sight made Santana's stomach do a flip. The whole ground was smeared with intestines and blood and there were claw marks in the ground, like someone had tried to fight for their life while being dragged away. It felt like they couldn't stop watching, but when they heard a low growl from behind them they snapped back to reality from their shocked state.

Santana really didn't know how it happened, but when she looked up again they suddenly found themselves surrounded by zombies. They couldn't escape. Their only option was to get inside the hardware store they had their back up against at the moment. Santana was frantically shouting for Blaine to get that fucking door open even if it was locked, as she tried to shoot as many of the zombies as she could. She heard that Blaine shattered the glass door to get in and he screamed for them to get inside.

Santana tried to back up to prevent the zombies from gaining on them, but somehow one of them had slipped past on her right side. The zombie had taken them all by surprise and no one saw it coming before Kurt scream out in pain. Santana turned around just in time to see the zombie take a large bit out of Kurt's neck. She quickly shot the zombie and Blaine helped her drag Kurt inside the hardware store. Rachel hurried to close the shops second door, to prevent the zombies from coming after them.

Kurt was laying on the floor bleeding badly from a huge wound in his neck. Rachel and Blaine were frantically trying to stop the bleeding and when Kurt tried to say something, he coughed up blood instead.

Santana was only concentrating on the horde of zombies, that were trying to break through the shop's display windows to get to them. She hoped the glass would take it, but she could already see tiny cracks being formed in the glass. She knew that they sooner or later would manage to get in and she had no plan of being there when that happened. She looked at the three others and made a quick decision. She strode up to Kurt and looked at him.

"I'm so sorry Kurt, but this is for the best."

Kurt looked up at her and his eyes grew big when she lifted her gun and shot him in the head. Both Blaine and Rachel jumped back in shock. Blaine just sat there dumbfounded and watched his husband's dead body in from of him. But Rachel shot up to her feet and almost attacked Santana. She was furious.

"You killed Kurt? YOU KILLED KURT! ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?!" Santana just looked at her calmly.

"No I'm not. We couldn't have saved him anyway, I just shortened his misery."

"WHAT-" Rachel looked at her like she had lost her mind and Santana stopped her before she started one of her famous rants. She knew that they didn't have the time for that.

"Look!" She pointed at the windows, which had even more cracks now.

"They are going to break through any second and we need to get out of here. Kurt was dying and don't you try to deny it! We couldn't have taken him with us, that would have gotten everybody killed." Rachel was about to shout at her again, but Santana was saved by the screeching sound of glass giving away. So instead Santana shouted.

"RUN TO THE BACK!"

They ran, but Blaine still sat there looking down at Kurt. Santana turned around and quickly grabbed him and pulled him through the back door, just as the windows gave away and the zombies started to crawl inside. She slammed the door behind her and Blaine and locked it, as the first zombie reached the door and tried to break it down.

Santana quickly let go of Blaine, to go search for a way out of the store. Blaine sank down on his knees and started rocking back and forth. Rachel tried to comfort him, but kept glancing at the door. She could hear something trying to get inside. She jumped in fear when Santana came back again and started talking.

"Good news, there's a back door we can use to get out of here. I think it leads to the backyard. I didn't see any zombies out there, so we might have a chance to get out of here alive. We should probably go right now, since most of the zombies are in the front of the store. I don't want to take the chance on them coming to the back and trapping us in here." Blaine didn't say anything, he just kept staring at his blood covered hands. Rachel stood up and was about to give Santana a piece of her mind, but Santana raised her hand.

"We haven't got the time for you to berate me for doing what I did. You're welcome to do it later, when we're safe somewhere other than here. Do you agree?" Rachel shut her mouth and nodded. She also wanted to get out of there as fast as they could, the banging outside the door was freaking her out.

"Good. Now you go through Kurt's backpack and take out everything that we can use. I'm going to take a quick look in some of these rooms, to see if there's anything of value to us." At Rachel's questioning look, she explained.

"I grabbed Kurt's backpack when I got Blaine. I didn't want to lose the little food that we have left. I tossed it in that corner." She pointed over her shoulder at the backpack and then left Rachel to go get it.

Rachel really didn't want to go through it, but she knew that she had to. It did at least bring Blaine back to life, when she started emptying it. He quickly grabbed one of the shirts that Rachel took out and then brought it up to his face and inhaled Kurt's scent. It started to freak Rachel out when he just kept doing it over and over again, she was relieved when Santana finally returned.

"You finished?" Rachel nodded.

"That's good. I think we should go now. It's getting darker and the zombies might try to go around, so we better get a move on."

Rachel tugged Blaine up, but he quickly bent down and took as many of Kurt's clothes that he could carry. Santana didn't look pleased, but she didn't say anything. They walked to the back door and Santana turned to the other two.

"Follow me and keep quiet."

She opened the door as carefully as she could and peeked out. She didn't see any movement and she waved for them to follow her. They quickly started to move towards a residential area and it seemed like they were going to get away safely.

Rachel was walking behind Santana dragging an unwilling Blaine after her, but suddenly she lost his hand. She quickly looked back and saw Blaine running back after one of Kurt's shirts, that he had lost on their way out of the store. She didn't know what to do. Santana was far ahead of them already, but she couldn't leave Blaine. He was obviously in shock after Kurt's death. She was battling between going to get Santana to help her with Blaine or just going herself, when she saw the zombie approaching Blaine. He was obviously in his own world, just standing there staring at his husband's shirt in his hands. So she didn't think when she shouted.

"SANTANA!"

Santana felt her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach, when she heard Rachel scream her name. She thought that Blaine and Rachel were right behind her. So when she turned around and saw them standing so far away from her, with a zombie so close to them, all she could think was that she had to save Rachel and later kill Blaine for risking her life. She didn't think about what she was doing, she just ran towards them. She quickly sprinted past Rachel and reach Blaine just in time to save him, from the zombie that was about to eat him alive. Santana hissed at Blaine in frustration.

"Get a grip! I can't keep saving your ass like this." But then she heard Rachel shouting.

"SANTANA! RUN!"

Santana quickly looked up and saw several zombies rounding the corner of the shop. They had obviously either heard Rachel's scream or the gun shot, when Santana killed the zombie that was trying to kill Blaine. Even if she had said she wouldn't save Blaine again, Santana still tugged an apathetic Blaine with her to get away. She ran after Rachel, who was heading towards the backyard of the nearest house. Santana could see her standing in the now open gate waiting for them, but she could also hear the zombies gaining on them. She was dragging Blaine after her and threw them both inside the gate.

Rachel barely got the gate closed, before the first zombie tried to attack her. She quickly backed up when more of them tried to break through the mesh fence gate, but relaxed when they didn't succeed. She turned around to ask if Blaine and Santana were all right, but what she saw made her freeze in the middle of her question.

"Are you guys ok-"


	9. Chapter 9

******Warning for chapter 9: **Suicide, Violence and Cursing

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Santana lay panting on the ground and if she had more energy left she would have killed Blaine, but at the moment she had more than enough with catching her breath. Her need to breath was quickly forgotten, when Rachel turned around and froze mid-sentence. Santana shot up and pointed her gun at what she thought would be another zombie, but lowered it back down when she saw what Rachel was looking at.

In front of them were four newly dug graves.

Santana was surprised by the sight of them, but she quickly turned towards Rachel when she heard her take a sharp breath. Rachel was pointing a shaking finger at the neighbour's backyard, where Santana could see three more graves. When Santana started to look around there were graves in all the neighbours backyards, as far as she could see.

Santana felt the hairs on her neck stand straight up at the sight, she didn't like it one bit. But she couldn't dwell on it right now, because she could still hear that the zombies were trying their best to get past the fence behind them. She didn't think they could actually manage to get through, the mesh fence looked rather solid, but she didn't want to test her luck. So she carefully nudged Rachel, to get her to look away from the graves.

"We have to get inside. I'll go first and you follow after with Blaine, but be quiet and don't do anything before I say so." Rachel nodded and went to pick up Blaine, who was still laying motionless in the grass clutching Kurt's clothes to his chest.

To Santana's relief the whole front yard was also fenced in and the front gate was locked. That would hopefully keep the zombies out. Now all she had to do was to check the house and then they had a safe place to stay for the night. Santana did a little happy dance inside her mind when the door was unlocked, but that also made her more alert to the possibility of someone still living there. So she sneaked inside, as silently as she could, but stopped dead in her tracks when she entered the living room. She heard Rachel gasp in horror behind her, when she and Blaine followed after her into the house.

In the far corner of the living room in an old armchair was a man sitting, looking straight at them with empty eyes. He had a big hole in his head and there was a gun laying beside his chair, on the floor. To Santana it was clear that he must have shot himself in the head. Her eyes caught the sight of a piece of paper in his hand and she carefully walked up to him and tried to take the paper. That wasn't an easy task, since the dead man was clutching it in his hand, but Santana didn't give up even when Rachel begged her to stop. She finally managed to yank the paper out from his dead cold hand and started to read it out loud.

"Please forgive me for what I've done. Today I killed...WOW!" Santana stopped reading and just stood there with her mouth open, staring down at the suicide letter. Then she looked back at the dead man, with hate in her eyes and spit out.

"Fucking asshole!" Rachel was suddenly very curious to find out what the note said.

"What-what did he do?" She wanted to know, but she also didn't want to know, because of Santana's reaction to the note. Santana turned around.

"You really don't want to know."

Rachel knew that Santana just wanted to protect her, but it still irritated her that Santana refused to tell her. So she dumped Blaine in one of the living room chairs and snapped the note out of Santana's hand, before she could react and stop her from reading it. After Rachel had read the note, tears were streaming down her cheeks and she wished she had listened to Santana.

"I told you not to read it." Well that didn't help at all.

"Thank you so much Santana, that made me feel so much better." Santana rolled her eyes. She turned back to look at the dead guy.

"So what are we going to do with this fucker? I really don't want him just sitting here while we try to sleep."

"We should bury him in the backyard with his family." Santana looked at her enraged.

"Do you really think that he deserves that after fucking executing his whole family!" Rachel looked back at her calmly.

"It doesn't help what I think Santana, but if we just throw his body out on the street what will that say about us. I refuse to behave like an animal just because others do. We're going to bury him and that's the end of this discussion!" Santana knew it wouldn't do any good arguing with Rachel, whenever she had made up her mind there were nothing anyone could do. But she still mumbled out.

"He doesn't deserve it." Rachel ignored her and looked out of the living room window. She sighed.

"We'll have to wait till tomorrow, it's almost dark." Santana grimaced.

"I don't want him to stay inside." It looked like Rachel was contemplating something. She looked at the dead body and then she looked at Blaine, who still hadn't moved. She shook her head.

"Okay, we'll try to carry him outside to the front porch. He can stay there till we can bury him in the morning."

It took them a while to get him outside and it didn't help that Santana kept mumbling curses at Blaine for not helping them. It was much easier getting the bloody armchair out, Santana didn't want that inside either.

Their mood got a little better when they found out that the electricity still worked and that there was a good amount of food in the kitchen, but it didn't last long when they inspected the bedrooms. They could clearly see that the dead guy had killed his wife, son and two daughters in their own beds. There were blood everywhere. Rachel turned to Santana with tears in her eyes.

"I don't want to stay here. I want to leave." All Santana could do was to hold her while she cried.

They both knew that they couldn't leave, it was already dark outside. So Santana brought Rachel down to the living room to Blaine, before she went upstairs again to find something without blood for them to sleep on. She found some blankets and spare pillows and brought everything down stairs, so they could all sleep in the study.

Santana put Blaine on the floor, on the only mattress that hadn't been smeared full of blood. He hadn't seen what was hiding upstairs, so he didn't complain. But that was no surprise since he still hadn't said anything after his husband's death. Santana and Rachel shared the rather tiny couch, that Rachel had helped her drag into the study from the living room.

* * *

Early the next morning Santana and Rachel buried the dead husband, beside his wife and three kids. Santana kept muttering things like "You don't deserve this you bastard!" and "You should be happy that you're dead or I would have killed you myself." She didn't stick around to listen to Rachel saying some last words over the five graves. She had more than enough with trying to block out the sight of all the other graves in the neighbours backyards. She desperately tried not to think about the possibility of finding the same scenario in every house on this block. She really hoped that not all the people in this village were as crazy as this dumb son of a bitch had been, but she was afraid that the graves told a different story. She just hoped Rachel didn't figure it out, she was way to fragile and would cry for days if she thought that this was the reason for all those graves out there. Sometimes Santana caught herself thinking that it probably was a good thing that Brittany had died when she did, because she would have been crushed by all of this happening.

When Rachel came back inside, Santana asked her and Blaine to come with her to the living room. Blaine didn't react, but Rachel took his hand and he followed after her without protesting. When they were both seated, Santana started to talk.

"So since Rachel really don't want to stay here any longer than necessary, I came up with a plan. When we walked outside today I noticed that there were several cars standing outside in the street. So I thought it over and decided that we should try to see if we can find keys to one of those cars. We'll try to look inside this house first, but if we can't find some here then we'll just have to try another house." Santana almost laughed when Rachel put up her hand.

"Yes Rachel?"

"So you were thinking that you and I would break into other people's homes and steal not only their keys, but also their car?" Santana rolled her eyes.

"I'm pretty sure it's not stealing when their dead and I don't see us getting arrested for doing this. Also I didn't plan on bringing you with me. You have no experience in handling a gun and I need proper back up in case of trouble."

"But wouldn't it be safer for you to bring me than going alone?" Rachel looked at her questioningly.

"I'm not going alone. I'm bringing Blaine with me." Rachel didn't look pleased.

"You can't take Blaine with you!" She gestured towards him.

"He's in no state to help you." Santana was still angry at Blaine for risking her and Rachel's lives twice yesterday, so she didn't think before she spit out.

"Well maybe he should just man up and stop being such a pussy!" Rachel looked stunned.

Blaine, who had been in a state of shock since he saw Santana kill his husband, snapped back to reality. Santana's words had given him flashbacks to his father yelling at his mother after he had found out that Blaine was gay. All of Blaine's pent-up anger about his father and Kurt's death came rushing to the surface. He shot up from his chair and pointed at Santana and screamed at her full of rage.

"At least I'm not a cold-hearted bitch like you, who doesn't care if someone dies! Why couldn't you have been the one to die instead of Kurt? He was worth ten times more than you! No one even likes you! No wonder your own girlfriend wanted to leave you! You're such a fucking-" He would probably have continued, but was stopped by Rachel slapping him across the face. He looked at her in shock and saw that she was fuming in anger.

Santana didn't register it. She had more than enough with trying to breathe. She felt like she had been hit by a freight train. All her fears and insecurities had been confirmed by Blaine, but what hit her the hardest was the thought of Brittany thinking the same as everybody else did about her. She could hear in the distance Rachel shouting at Blaine for being insensitive and a jackass, because they had all lost someone who they had loved.

Santana didn't think, she just had to get away from them before she broke down. So she ran outside, without thinking about her own safety, leaving her gun behind. She didn't know where she was going, she just kept running. She didn't register anything around her. All she could think about was Brittany wanting to leave her and her vision got blurred by the tears that were falling. She didn't stop before someone shouted.

"SANTANA!"

She turned around and saw Blaine standing not far from her with his gun raised, pointing at her. She heard the safety catch click, which signaled that the gun was ready to be fired. She looked at Blaine in fear and her voice trembled.

"Bl-" That was all she could get out before Blaine fired his gun.


	10. Chapter 10

******Warning for chapter 10:** Cursing and Violence

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Santana had never been so scared in her whole life, as she was in that moment she saw Blaine's gun pointing straight at her. The second Blaine fired his gun, Santana closed her eyes and waited to feel the excruciating pain of being hit by a bullet. She had stopped breathing in fear and her heart was beating so fast, that she was afraid she would die from a heart attack before the bullet even managed to kill her. She just hoped that she would die quickly, so she didn't have to suffer too much. But when the seconds ticked by and nothing happened, she finally dared to open her eyes and look at Blaine again. He was still standing there with his gun pointed in her direction. Santana didn't know what to believe. She knew that Blaine wouldn't have missed that shot, he was way to good of a shooter to do that. Maybe he just wanted to torture her before he finally killed her, that would explain why she was still alive.

Blaine saw her surprised look and pointed his gun at something behind her. Hesitatingly Santana turned around, hoping that Blaine wasn't planning on shooting her with her back turned. She didn't see anything at first, but when she looked down she saw a zombie laying dead on the ground with a bullet hole in its head. She had been heading straight for it and if Blaine hadn't stopped her, she would probably be dead right now. When she turned back around, Blaine walked up to her.

"Did you think that I was going to kill you?" He didn't show any emotions, he just looked down at the zombie. Santana couldn't seem to get one word out, so Blaine looked up at her and continued.

"I wouldn't do that. Don't get me wrong all I have been thinking about is killing you since you shot Kurt, but I wouldn't do that to Rachel. She's the only reason I bothered running after you in the first place and saving your ass." Santana furrowed her brow. Blaine didn't kill her because of Rachel, what was that supposed to mean? Blaine took one last look at the zombie and turned around.

"Lets get back to the house before more of those fuckers shows up and tries to eat us. Rachel is probably going out of her mind worrying about you. Come on." Santana didn't say anything, she just followed after Blaine back to the house.

When they entered the living room the first thing they were met with was a fuming Rachel, who started hitting Santana and calling her an idiot for leaving. But then she suddenly broke down in tears and started desperately clinging to Santana instead, like her life was depending on it, while she kept telling the other woman to never leave her again. Santana was so surprised by Rachel's attack and then break down that she didn't know what to do, so she just let Rachel cry in her arms.

Blaine was sitting in one of the living room chairs, unaffected by the scene in front of him, waiting for Rachel to stop crying. When she finally did, he stood up. He motioned for the other two to sit down, which wasn't that easy for Santana since Rachel was still holding tightly on to her. When she eventually managed to drop down in one of the chairs, Rachel was practically sitting in her lap and refused to move. Blaine looked at Santana.

"I have decided to help you with your plan to get us out of here-" Rachel looked up at Blaine and started to smile, but quickly stopped when Blaine continued.

"but only if you help me." Santana sat up straight, almost sending Rachel flying down to the floor. She looked at Blaine suspiciously.

"What do you want Anderson?" Blaine didn't back down and stared right back at her.

"I want you to help me get Kurt's body back, so I can bury him."

"WHAT!" This time Rachel stood no chance. She went tumbling down to the floor when Santana jumped up from the chair.

"ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE!" Blaine seemed unfazed by the screaming woman in front of him.

When Blaine didn't react to her screaming, Santana started pacing back and forth. Completely ignoring Rachel, who was sitting on the floor and rubbing her head after the fall. Santana eventually stopped and looked at Blaine.

"You want me to go back with you to that zombie infested hole to get Kurt? Who by the way if you have forgotten is dead! We're not dead! We're still alive, but you want me to go on this stupid suicide mission with you? You have clearly lost you're mind! I refuse to do it. I don't need your help anyway, I can do everything by myself." Santana seemed pleased with her decision and sat down. Blaine scoffed.

"Figures, I didn't think you would." He turned to Rachel.

"Will you help me?" Rachel, who had been staring angrily at Santana because of her fall, was caught of guard by the question. She looked from Blaine to Santana before she finally answered.

"Yes, I'll help you get Kurt." Santana froze. She had been so sure that Rachel would say no to Blaine's psychotic suicide mission, but she hadn't. Now she was panicking internally. She couldn't let Rachel do that with Blaine, she would get killed. So Santana shot up from her chair again and pointed her finger at Blaine.

"You're not putting Rachel in danger!" Santana gave Blaine one of her feared death glares, but he didn't flinch.

"She agreed to help me. I'm not forcing her to do anything." Santana quickly turned and looked at Rachel in anger.

"You're not going with him!" Rachel huffed.

"I'm a grown woman Santana. I can make my own decisions and the last time I checked you're not the boss of me." Santana looked at them both in rage.

"That's not true! You made me the leader and I forbid you to do this." She pointed at Rachel in triumph.

"Well maybe we should vote again." Blaine smirked at her. Santana was about to go all Lima Heights Adjacent on his ass, but Rachel stopped her.

"I don't think that's necessary. The decision is made and if Santana want to do something about it, she can just come with us." Santana rolled her eyes.

"Yeah right, like I want to die. I'll just leave that up to you two, I'm staying here." Rachel seemed disappointed, but nodded anyway.

"Okay." She turned back to Blaine.

"We should probably wait till tomorrow, since we first need to make a plan so we have a better chance of surviving. I also think that you should teach me how to fire a gun, just in case I need to use one."

"You don't have a gun!" Santana quickly pointed out.

"I'm guessing you're not offering me your gun?" Santana was about to say something, but Rachel waved her off.

"It doesn't matter. I'm taking Tom's gun." Santana looked like a big question mark. Rachel quickly elaborated.

"The dead guy, his name was Tom. I found his wallet in the study yesterday and looked at his driver license." Santana really didn't care what that mother fucker's name had been. Rachel continued.

"When you so foolishly ran away, I picked up his gun in case I needed to use it and I found out that the gun still had two bullets left. Therefore I'm taking his gun with me, so I really don't need to borrow yours." Rachel turned back to Blaine again, leaving a distraught looking Santana to her own thoughts.

Even if Santana had told them that she didn't care she still stayed in the living room, throwing out snide remarks about their plan that strangely enough helped them correct and perfect it. She even helped Blaine teach Rachel how to handle a gun. When Blaine and Rachel decided to go over the plan one more time before they went to bed. Santana got up and searched through the whole house till she finally found a weapon safe in the basement, that luckily contained some more bullets for Rachel's gun. But she only did that because she was bored and had nothing else to do. After that they all decided to go to bed, since Blaine and Rachel had to get up at dawn to go on their mission to retrieve Kurt's dead body from the hardware store.

* * *

The next day Santana was sitting in the kitchen, looking at Blaine and Rachel getting ready to leave.

When Blaine opened the front door, Rachel turned around and looked at her.

"Goodbye Santana."

Santana couldn't get a sound out in fear of starting to cry, so she quickly averted her eyes away from the two of them. Rachel looked down to the floor, blinking away the tears in her eyes. Blaine ignored Santana and patted Rachel on her shoulder.

"We should probably go." Rachel nodded and followed him out. Glancing back at Santana one last time, before she closed the door behind herself. Santana was still refusing to look back at her.

When the door closed behind Rachel, Santana finally turned around and looked at the empty hallway. She knew she had to do something. Not because she wanted to keep Rachel alive. No, it was only because it would be so fucking boring to be the only one still alive. At least it was better to hear Rachel's constant whining, instead of the heavy silence that she was surrounded by right now.

So she quickly got up and sprinted after them and panted out "I'm coming with you." when she caught up with Blaine and Rachel in the backyard. Santana wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the smile Rachel gave her was almost worth risking her life for. Still she wasn't going to think about what that meant right now. Instead she took charge and demanded that Rachel should only be the look out for Blaine and her and signal if she saw any zombies. Rachel started to object, but Blaine agreed with Santana. Rachel didn't seem pleased, but she caved eventually.

They quickly found a place in a garden, that was nearer the hardware store, where Rachel could stay safe from any zombies roaming around, but still be able to signal them if she saw any of them approaching the shop. Before they left, Santana glared at Rachel.

"You will not go outside this fence! Regardless of what ever happens, you will not go outside this fence! Am I making myself clear?" Rachel looked down and nodded.

"Rachel!"

"Yes it's crystal clear."

"Good! Come on Anderson, I want this over as fast as possible." Santana didn't look back at Rachel when they left her standing there alone.

* * *

The "rescue" mission went better than Santana had hoped. They knew that there wouldn't be any zombies in the back of the shop, since they had closed the back door before they left. So they were at least safe there. The scariest part was opening the door to the front of the store. It didn't help that when they carefully opened it, they could see several claw marks from the zombies on the other side where they had tried to get in. Santana really hoped that they were all gone by now.

So when they turned the corner, it was a little bit of a relief to see only one of them still there. Luckily the zombie didn't see them coming, because it was hunched over Kurt's dead body. Santana wasn't sure if it was still feasting on Kurt, but she really didn't want to know the answer either way. Blaine reacted immediate and lifted his ax and attacked the zombie and quickly managed to killed it.

The sight that greeted them almost made Santana throw up her breakfast. The zombies had taken huge chunks of Kurt flesh and Santana almost didn't recognize him anymore She bit back the queasy feeling in her gut and helped Blaine wrap Kurt up in some bed sheets, that they had brought with them to make it easier for them to carry him back to the house. They quickly took him to the back of the store, where they would be safer.

Before they decided to leave the safety of the store, Santana used the opportunity to go and throw up in the staff's bathroom. When she came back again she saw a devastated Blaine sitting on the floor, caressing Kurt's fabric covered body. He quickly got up when he noticed her presence.

"Lets get him back. I want to bury him as quickly as possible." Santana nodded and grabbed Kurt's legs.

Blaine opened the back door and Santana peeked out. Everything seemed clear and Rachel was giving her two thumbs up. They moved as quickly as they could with the extra weight between them. Rachel tried to help when she joined the two of them again. As they entered the back gate and Rachel closed it behind them, Santana felt the relief wash over her. They were finally safe again and they were all still alive, well everyone except Kurt.

Rachel was the one that helped Blaine bury his husband. Santana didn't feel like Blaine wanted her there and she didn't blame him for that. So she went inside and watched from the living room window, as Blaine and Rachel held a memorial service for Kurt in the backyard. She was probably crying as much as the other two were.

When Rachel and Blaine came back inside, Blaine moved his stuff out of the study and took it to the storage room in the basement, where he had decided to sleep instead. Santana tried not to feel hurt by it, but she still did. That night Santana couldn't stop the tears from falling and she didn't even push Rachel away, when she tried to comfort her. So she ended up crying herself to sleep in Rachel's arms once again.


	11. Chapter 11

******Warning for chapter 11:** Major Character Death, Suicides, Violence, Cursing, Hinting/Talking about Rape and Sex Slavery (If these last two subjects are triggers for you, then I want to reassure you that nothing is going to happen)

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

**A/N: **Yes this is my last major character death, from now on I'm only going to kill my own original characters.

* * *

**Chapter 11**

Blaine kept his promise and helped Santana search for keys to one of the cars standing in the street outside. When they didn't find any car keys inside their own house, Santana and Blaine decided to try out their luck in some of the other houses instead. Rachel wanted to help too, but Santana refused to take her with them. She really didn't want Rachel to see what she was afraid they would find inside most of the neighbour houses, if the graves in their backyards were anything to go by.

Santana had almost caved and taken Rachel with them, since she was still a little bit apprehensive about the possibility of Blaine shooting her in the back when they left the safety of Rachel and the house behind them. Blaine seemed to read her concern and he made sure to tell her, when Rachel wasn't around, that even if he hadn't forgiven her for Kurt's death, he still wouldn't kill her as long as Rachel was alive. That was, in Santana's book, another good reason to keep Rachel away from any possible danger. So she had demanded that Rachel should stay at home and when Blaine decided to back her up, Rachel had nothing she could say to change their decision. She reluctantly stayed behind, when the two of them left to check out the other houses. Still it didn't prove as easy as Santana had hoped to find those stupid car keys. They actually had to go through several houses, before they finally found some keys that matched one of the cars outside.

When they had started looking she and Blaine had singled out all the houses with graves in the backyard, since that seemed to be a good indication of an empty house. Well except for the dead guy they, almost every time, found somewhere inside the house. In most cases he had a bullet hole in his head and a gun laying by his side, but sometimes he had obviously taken some kind of drug and died of an overdose instead. Santana was starting to think that they had stumbled across some kind of whacked-out cult, but she finally got the explanation for the insanity going on in the village when she read one of the many suicide letters they had found. Not surprisingly it all had something to do with the epidemic.

* * *

When the outbreak had started and many of the people in the village had began to turn and killing others, a few of the men in the village had gathered all their friends to a meeting. After a long discussion, they had come to the conclusion that it was better for them to kill their own family and themselves, before they also turned like the others had done. Most of them had agreed that it was the right thing to do in this situation. So They had helped each other out, by kill someone else's family and then they had all helped bury them together. After they had killed everyone's family and put them all to rest, they had all walked home and killed themselves.

Santana felt physically sick after reading that letter and she simply refused to tell Rachel anything, she decided that she would never tell her about what they had seen or read in those houses ever. So Rachel didn't find out the truth behind all the other graves, because Blaine didn't want to tell her anything about it either. Which frustrated Rachel, but she chose to respect their decision even if she complained about it for a long time afterwards.

* * *

For the most parts Santana and Blaine could just walk in through an unlocked door when no one answered, another sign that they were stranded somewhere in the countryside without a lot of crime, because that would never been possible back home in New York. However they had been forced to break into some of the houses a couple of times, but they still chose to do it because of the only good thing that had come from all of these house invasions: food and guns. They desperately needed both of those things to survive, but Santana never told Rachel about the guns that they had found. She and Blaine just hid them inside the car that they were going to escape in, so Rachel wouldn't find out about them.

They really didn't want another lecture about stealing from other people. Which was really fucking stupid, since they were all dead anyway. It wasn't like they were going to complain about it. Rachel never said anything about the food they brought home, she only protested when they brought home things that wasn't edible. She always gave them a long rant about not stealing someone else's property, but to be honest Santana didn't see the difference between taking someone's food or taking their stuff. It wasn't like the owners needed either of them any more. So she and Blaine just chose to ignore Rachel's outbursts, because they knew from experience that she would stop whining about it eventually and calm down in the end.

The most likely reason for Rachel's attacks on Blaine and Santana, was that she had nothing to do and she felt left out. While they were out searching for things they needed, she just sat in a chair staring at the door. Nervously waiting and hoping for them to return safely. After a week with only doing that, there were no wonder that she was really eager to get away from the village. So when Blaine and Santana had found enough food to pack the car full, they all agreed that they should try to drive back to the second house that they had lived in. Still Blaine was a little bit reluctant to go there, because of all the memories that house held of Kurt. He also didn't like the idea of leaving Kurt's grave behind, because he still felt the need to visit it every day. So Santana asked him if he wanted to stay behind by himself. Blaine responded by giving her a look that really frightened Santana, before he leaned closer to her ear and whispered, so quietly that only she could hear him.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Then he straightened his back and looked towards Rachel and gave her a big smile, before he said out loud.

"I would never leave you, Rachel." Santana looked really uncomfortable after his comment, but Rachel didn't notice it. Instead she beamed at Blaine and gave him a big hug.

"I love you too Blaine. Thank you for not leaving." Blaine hugged her back and gave Santana a smile over Rachel's head, that gave her chills and not the got kind. She really didn't trust Blaine any more.

* * *

They quickly started packing the car, with everything they had found, to get as fast as possible out of the clearly insane village they had been living in. Santana had even demanded that they should pack their backpacks, in case something happened on the way to their old house. Blaine didn't think it was necessary, because of the short drive. So he refused to do it. Stating, so only Santana could hear, that she wasn't the boss of him any more. Santana was relieved that at least Rachel listened to her and packed her backpack, with her clothes and some food, as Santana had asked her to do.

When they were finally ready to go. Santana and Blaine decided to double-check the house just to make sure that they hadn't left anything behind. Rachel was already impatiently waiting for them inside the car, ready to leave. When they didn't find anything of importance. Santana reached out to grab the car keys, that were hanging beside the front door, but Blaine beat her to it and snatched them right in front of her.

"Umm Blaine could you give me the car keys, so we can get out of here?" Blaine shook his head.

"No, I want to drive." Santana didn't want to argue with Blaine, but she really didn't like the idea of him driving either. Blaine could see the she wasn't pleased and he gave her a wicked smile.

"Don't worry I'm not going to drive us over a cliff. Rachel is in the car with us and I don't want to kill her." Then he laughed and walked out of the front door and over to the driver's side of the car and got in. He quickly honked the car horn, to get a frozen Santana to speed up and get into the car.

Santana snapped back to reality because of the loud sound and she hurried out to the car and jumped inside, she could already see several zombies approaching the car. Blaine just gave her a knowing smile in return, when she looked at him, so she quickly averted her gaze and looked out of the window instead. She really didn't like the way he had been almost threatening her the last week. He never did it when Rachel could hear him or he would just lean in to whisper it in her ear, so Rachel wouldn't catch it. Unfortunately for Santana it seemed like it was getting worse, but she had hoped that she was wrong about it.

She really didn't know what type of game Blaine was trying to play with her, but whatever it was she was getting sick of it. Santana just hoped that he would stop it soon. She hadn't told Rachel about it yet, because she still loved Blaine. He was after all one of the few friends she had, but she also hadn't told Rachel because she was a little bit afraid that Rachel wouldn't believe her over Blaine. That thought itself hurt more than it should. Still she probably had to tell her the truth soon, especially if Blaine kept harassing her when they came to their old house.

* * *

Santana was still contemplating what to do about her situation, when the car suddenly stopped. They hadn't been driving for long, but Blaine had been forced to stop the car, because of a hindrance on the road. There hadn't been any obstacles on the road to the village, the first time they had walked there. So Santana immediately thought that Blaine had chosen a different road out of the village.

"How did you manage to take the wrong way Anderson?" Blaine looked back at her with a death glare.

"I didn't take the wrong way and if I did you didn't point it out Lopez!" Suddenly Santana felt fear well up in her gut. Maybe Blaine had planned this all along, maybe he was going to kill her now.

"I think we should just turn around and go back to the village." Santana tried to sound brave, but her voice still quivered a little bit when she spoke. Blaine shook his head and looked towards the huge pile up in front of them.

"Not yet. I'm going to go check it out and see if we can get around it. Maybe it's possible to move some of the debris out of the way, to get a clear path through to the other side." Santana really didn't want him to leave the car, but Blaine had already taken the keys out of the car ignition and put them in his pocket. That scared Santana.

"Please don't do it! Lets just turn around and head back. I haven't got a good feeling about this." She really didn't, but she didn't know if it was because of Blaine's behaviour or if it was because of the hindrance in front of them. Blaine snarled back at her in irritation.

"I don't care about what you feel Lopez. I'm going to go check it out, regardless of whatever you tell me to do." He opened the driver's door and stepped outside. Santana watched as Blaine walked towards the obstacle, before she also stepped out of the car and motioned for Rachel to get out on her side.

"Bring the backpacks with you." Rachel hesitated.

"Why?" Santana snapped back at her.

"Just do as I say!" Rachel looked hurt. Santana rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Please!" Rachel huffed, but grabbed them anyway and got out.

Blaine was now on the other side of the road and Santana's stomach suddenly dropped, when she spotted a group of guys that quickly surrounded him. She grabbed a hold of Rachel's hand and tugged her down to the ground and hid them out of sight behind the car. Santana indicated to Rachel that she had to be quiet. she looked back at Santana with fearful eyes, but she still nodded her head in understanding. They could both hear Blaine talking, he sounded afraid and Santana didn't blame him for that. She was really scared herself.

"What can I do for you guys?" One of the men answered his question.

"Give us everything you have."

"Yes of course. Take what ever you like, just let me go." Santana could hear that his voice was wavering and she crouched down to look under the car. She could see the guy talking to Blaine, who was probably the leader of the bunch, laugh at Blaine's request.

"I don't think so." He signaled to one of his men, who immediately raised his gun and shot Blaine in the head. Blaine's body collapsed and he fell down to the ground, his dead eyes staring straight back at Santana.

Santana didn't hesitate. She hurried to get up to her feet and grabbed Rachel, before she quickly dragged her towards the nearby forest. They probably would have gotten away without being seen, since most of the men were still standing there laughing over Blaine's dead body and making fun of him. They were clearly not aware of the fact that there had been two other people in the car. Unluckily for Santana and Rachel one of the guys had decided to go and check out the car, to see if they had gotten anything good. So when he reached the driver's door, he accidentally looked up and spotted them running towards the forest. Santana could hear him scream at the top of his lungs.

"LUKE! THERE'S TWO GIRLS RUNNING AWAY FROM THE CAR!" The guy named Luke, who had been the one that talked to Blaine, quickly shouted out an order to three of his guys.

"PATRICK, STEVE, TAYLOR. GET THEM!"

Santana was running as fast as she could, but she was unfortunately slowed down by the extra weight of her backpack. It didn't help that she had to drag Rachel after her too, since she wasn't as fast as Santana. They had just reached the first trees, when Luke ordered his guys to get them. Santana had hoped that the three guys wouldn't be able to find them among the trees, but their pursuers quickly caught up with them inside the forest. Santana desperately tried to put up a fight, but she was soon defeated. They were all a lot bigger than any guys Santana had ever fought before, so it wasn't a big surprise that she lost.

Two of the guys, one of them was holding Rachel who had given up rather quickly, were laughing at the guy that was holding Santana. Because it was clear that he had received a black eye and several claw marks from her in the struggle.

"That's quite a girl you got there Steve. You should watch out for her she looks like a minx to me, but you probably know that better than us since she has already marked you." They kept laughing at him, but Steve didn't seem as entertained by it as them.

"Very funny guys!" He was angry about the fact that he had been made fun of by his friends, so he took a handful of Santana's hair and yanked her up by it and grumbled in her ear.

"You are so going to regret doing that later, when I get you alone."

Even though the hair pulling hurt like a bitch, his words scared Santana so much that she quickly forgot about the pain. It felt like those words made her heart shoot up into her throat and she suddenly felt the need to throw up. She knew that they were in serious trouble, but she didn't know how they were going to get out of it. The only thing Santana knew for certain, was that she really didn't want to see Steve's promise become a reality. But before she could think of a good plan to escape, one of the guys started to laugh again. That made Steve even more enraged and he tightened his grip on Santana.

"What!" He quickly stopped laughing and looked at the guy holding Rachel, before he pointed at Santana and then Rachel.

"Taylor look at them. Don't you remember that we have seen them before? They came to the farm last month. Don't you remember? Luke send us out to get ride of them. He ordered us to kill them, but that wild cat -" He pointed at Santana, before he waved in the direction of the road. "and that guy Steve killed had guns, so we didn't do it after all. Remember?" Taylor grinned.

"Yeah, that's true! But wasn't there one more guy?" He looked around like he was afraid that Kurt, suddenly would jump out from behind a tree and kill them all. So he quickly pressed his gun against Rachel's temple.

"Where is he?!" Rachel started to cry in fear and that made Taylor angry, so he clicked off the gun's safety and put even more pressure on the gun. Rachel desperately tried to move away, because the gun's muzzle had started to dig into her skin and it really hurt.

"Answer me!" Santana was suddenly scared that he would actually pull the trigger and end Rachel's life, so she quickly shouted out.

"His dead! He got bitten by a zombie in the village." That seemed to please him and he took his gun away from Rachel's head and smiled.

"Too bad. He looked like a screamer, we could have had a lot of fun with him. We only killed your friend so fast because Luke considered him a threat, but he didn't seem that smart to me. He even put down his gun when we came out from our hiding place, that just made him easier to kill. It's too bad that we didn't get to play with him first before we killed him, but we did get you two girls instead and that's so much better if you ask me." All the guys laughed and grinned evilly at the thought of what they could do with them. Rachel still hadn't picked up what the guys wanted Santana and her for, but Santana had and she was desperately searching for a way out. Rachel had finally stopped crying and sniffled out.

"But why did you have to kill Blaine, when he didn't do anything to you? You could have just let him go. You can still let us go. I promise that we won't tell anyone what you did." There was still a little bit of hope in her voice, it almost broke Santana's heart. All three guys laughed at Rachel. The third guy, who had to be Patrick, smiled at her.

"Oh ain't you the sweetest little thing. We had to kill him because the world has gone insane and it's every man for himself. We don't need other people coming here, trying to steal our food. Luke says that it's best that we get ride of everyone. It's better to kill them before they get bitten and turn into those monsters, because then they will try to eat us too. The fewer people and zombies there are, the better it's for us." Steve quickly butted in.

"And we don't want to kill you girls or let you go, at least not right now. Us guys are going to have a lot of fun with you two. You see we do have this big problem that you pretty little ladies can help us with. The problem is that none of the guys have been anywhere near a woman in a long time and that is unacceptable. So when we suddenly have gotten so lucky that we found you two ladies, I think we'll just keep you two to entertain us all." Patrick laughed.

"Yeah you are two extremely lucky girls, because you'll get to ride this for free." He motioned up and down his own body and grabbed his crotch, while he smiled maliciously at the two girls in front of him.

"I'm really looking forward to trying you two out, it's going to be so much fun."

Santana desperately tried not to puke, but it looked like Rachel had finally understood the situation they were in. It seemed like she rather wanted to die, than experience what Patrick was threatened to do to her. The tears had already started to fall again, just at the thought of what they were going to do. Taylor hummed in happiness.

"Yeah I really thought that making a roadblock was a stupid idea, but look at what it got us. It was totally worth all that struggle Luke made us go through to make that dumb thing. I thought it was going to be a wast of time, because I hadn't even seen a car other than our own since the outbreak. You were actually the first car that we have stopped. It really was your lucky day." All three of them laughed cruelly and looked at each other with matching smirks.

They quickly stared discussing between themselves if they should take the girls for a test drive before they headed back to the others, because they all knew that Luke probably would claim them for himself first. They really didn't want to wait till he was finished with them, so they decided to go for it. But since there were three guys and only two girls, they stared arguing about which one of them that had to wait his turn. The discussion got pretty heated after a while, since none of them wanted to volunteer to wait for the other two to finish. Then Steve raised one of his arms to point at Patrick, he was going to demand that he had to be the one to wait since he was the youngest. That was the chance Santana had been waiting for.

* * *

Santana knew that she had put Rachel's hunting knife in the left side pocket of her hunting pants, before they had left the house that morning. Earlier that week she had been lucky and found some really badass hunting pants, that fit her perfectly, in one of the houses they had gone through. The owner of the pants was dead anyway, so no one was going to miss them. So Santana had chosen to taken them with her back to the house, but Rachel hadn't been as trilled about it as she had been. At this moment however Santana was really glad that she hadn't listened to Rachel and worn her own clothes like she had demanded, because they wouldn't have been able to fit the hunting knife in them. Luckily Rachel had given Santana her knife, when she had demanded to keep Tom's gun for herself. Santana had agreed, after she had given Rachel a lot of gun safety lessons.

So while the three guys had argued, Santana had been contemplating how she could get the knife out of her side pocket. She unfortunately hadn't been able to reached it yet, because Steve was holding her so tightly. It almost felt like he wanted to squeeze her to death, but that was probably because he was still pissed that she had kicked his ass. But when the three of them had started to argue, he unknowingly started loosening his grip on her. So when he raised his arm to point at Patrick, that was all she needed.

* * *

Santana quickly bent down and grabbed the hunting knife out of her pocket and stabbed it as hard as she could into Steve's left thigh. He screamed out in pain and dropped his gun, before he fell down to the ground, crying like a little baby. The other two were caught off guard by Santana's sudden attack. So she used the opportunity to grab Steve's gun from the ground and shot Patrick, who was immediately killed by the bullet. She quickly turned the gun towards Taylor, who was still holding Rachel. He was about to point his gun at Rachel's head and threaten to kill her, if Santana tried to do anything to him.

"I'll shoo-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before Santana shot him straight in the head and he fell over dead, taking Rachel down with him in the fall. Rachel scrambled away from the dead man and hurried over to Santana, who had crouched down to talk to Steve. He was still laying on the ground clutching his thigh in agony, he hadn't dared to pull the hunting knife out.

"Now listen up Douchebag! You're going to answer some of my questions." Steve looked up at her with hate written all over his face.

"Fuck you bitch! The only thing I'm going to do is kill you!" Santana tsked in disapproval over his lack of willingness to cooperate with her.

"Wrong answer!" She grabbed the hunting knife and stared moving it back and forth. Steve howled out in pain.

"STOP!" Santana stopped and looked at him questioningly.

"Are you going to answer my question?"

"Yes, Yes just stop doing that." He sobbed out. Santana smirked.

"Good boy! There's some things I want to know and you are going to answer me. But if you try to lie to me, I will cut your balls off and feed them to you instead of being nice. Do you understand?" She could see Steve swallow in fear and he rapidly nodded his head.

"How many guys are left up there?" She pointed in the direction of the road. Steve quickly answered her question.

"We were fifteen in the beginning, but when we tried to find food in the village we lost five guys. So we are only ten now or eight since you killed Taylor and Patrick, you fucking bitch!" Santana quickly wiggled the knife a little bit more to shut him up. Steve started sobbing because of the pain and Santana smirked.

"I didn't ask about that. I already know that I'm a bitch, that's not news to me. So shut up!" He cried out when she stabbed the hunting knife even deeper into his wound one more time, but he didn't say anything more about her being a bitch afterwards. That was a good thing, because Santana had to think.

What he had said meant that there were seven more guys up there and if Blaine had still been alive that wouldn't have been so many, but alone that would be too much for her since she also had to keep Rachel safe. So she knew that their only option was to run and get as far away from them as possible. Santana was about to ask Rachel what she thought they should do about Steve, he was after all the guy that had killed Blaine, when they heard someone shout.

"STEVE, TAYLOR, PATRICK. DID YOU GUYS CATCH THEM? ARE YOU OKAY? WE HEARD SOME GUN SHOTS!" Santana quickly pointed her gun at Steve and whispered.

"Don't you dare answer him!" Steve quickly nodded in fear, but then they heard another guy.

"WHERE ARE YOU GUYS? YOU BETTER NOT BE HAVING A GOOD TIME WITH THE GIRLS WITHOUT US. WE WANT A PIECE OF THAT TOO!" When Steve heard that two of his friends were so close, he got a little bit braver and he started to shout out for help.

"HE-" That was the last thing he was ever able to do.

Santana quickly snatched the hunting knife out of his thigh and slit his throat over, so he wouldn't be able to give away their whereabouts. She didn't know if the other guys had heard him, but she wasn't taking any chances. So she directed her attention towards Rachel, who was looking at Steve's dead body in complete shock. Santana quietly hissed out.

"Get your backpack! We have to get out of here before they come!"

The possibility of getting caught again, made Rachel stop staring at Steve and she quickly got up to go in search of her things. Santana found her own backpack not far away from where Steve had grabbed her, where it had fallen off in the fight between them. She quickly grabbed Rachel's hand and they started to run deeper into the forest, but they didn't get far.

The forest suddenly stopped. Santana barely managed to grab a hold of a tree nearby, to prevent Rachel and herself from falling face first into the big river they had come to. Now they were both staring in horror at the water that was blocking their only escape route. Santana could see the riverbank on the other side, but she knew that they wouldn't make it over there before they would get caught. They would be sitting ducks out there in the water, the guys that were chasing them could easily shoot and kill them out there. Santana knew that their pursuers had to be right behind them, because one of them shouted to the other one that he had found Steve, Taylor and Patrick. It was clear that they were quickly heading in their direction. Santana could feel Rachel clinging to her in fear, but she had no plan of giving up just yet. So she quickly whispered to Rachel.

"We have to climb down into the water." She had to lay a hand over Rachel's mouth to prevent her from shouting out in surprise. She removed her hand and Rachel whispered.

"What!?" Santana didn't feel that she had the time to explain, so instead she grabbed Rachel and as quietly as she could she lowered her down into the water.

Santana had seen on the other side that the riverbank was rather steep and that the river had dug out a lot of the landmass closes to the water. That meant that they could try to hide under the riverbank, in this little nature made pocket, out of sight from the people standing on land. Santana had barely gotten down into the water herself and pushed them both under the riverbank, when they heard someone running towards the river. Before both of the guys chasing them, stopped right above where Santana and Rachel were hiding.

"Can you see them?"

"No, but they have to be here somewhere. They can't have come far, because of the river. We'll probably find them if we look around." Santana could see the guy talking starting to lean over the riverside to look down. She knew that he would spot them, if he leaned just a little bit farther out. So she held her gun ready, but luckily they were saved by the other guys response.

"No, we'll have to drop that. The sun is setting soon and I don't want to be outside when it gets dark." Santana sighed in relief when the guy leaning out, stopped and turned around to his buddy.

"But they killed Steve, Patrick and Taylor!" The first one laughed.

"That were their own fault for being so stupid that they got killed by two girls. We don't need such pussies in our group. Good riddance if you ask me, more food for us. Steve always ate way to much anyway."

"Yeah you're right. I never liked Patrick, he was such a pompous jerk. Always bragging about being the only one of us to finish high school. Much good it did him, wasn't smart enough to even beat a girl." They both laughed.

"But I'm mad at them for losing those girls. I really miss sex, it would have been great to get two girls to bang. Santana could feel Rachel shiver beside her.

If it hadn't been for Rachel, Santana was certain that she would have tried to swim out and gun them both down herself. People like that shouldn't be alive, especially when good people like her friends had died in vain. Still she couldn't just think of herself, she needed to protect Rachel and the best way to do that was to let those monsters live. She just really hoped that they would get eaten by zombies later, but maybe not even zombies wanted to eat shit like that. They would probably spit them out again. Santana was fuming in anger and was happy that she at least had killed three of them. Then the first guy answered his friend.

"Yeah I miss it too. Too bad we can't bang those zombies walking around, there are plenty of those. I'm afraid that if this last much longer, we'll probably need to catch a zombie or we'll end up fucking each other." The other guy snorted in amusement.

"No offence, but I would rather have sex with a zombie than you!" The first guy quickly agreed with him.

"Yeah me too! Lets just hope that we find a girl to take home with us instead." Both guys laughed crudely. Santana felt sick to her stomach. He continued.

"Still it wasn't a complete wast of time, at least we got a lot of food and guns. We just have to find some women another time." Santana didn't miss the confused look on Rachel's face when he mentioned the guns, she just hoped that Rachel wouldn't ask her about that later.

Santana was relived when she finally heard those two scumbags walking away, still laughing and joking about what they were going to do when they finally found a girl to fuck. Rachel was about to get out from under the riverbank, but Santana quickly stopped her by grabbing her shoulder and shaking her head. She wanted to wait a while longer to be on the safe side. So they waited till they could hear several car doors slamming shut and cars driving away. Santana turned to Rachel and whispered.

"They have most likely all gone home, but we still have to be careful in case someone stayed behind to see if they could catch us. I for one don't feel like ending up as a sex slave for the rest of my life and I don't think you want that either." Rachel quickly shook her head and it looked like she was going to cry again. So Santana tried to give her an encouraging smile, but it fell flat since she felt like crap herself. So she quickly tried to comfort Rachel another way, when she saw that her lip was starting to tremble.

"I promise to do everything I can to prevent you from ending up as a sex slave Rachel." At least that seemed to work and it even got her a half-smile from Rachel, that in itself helped a little bit on Santana's own bad mood.

* * *

It took them way too long to get up on the riverside again, because of the steep climb. Santana really didn't like the fact that it was getting darker and that they had nowhere to spend the night. She was crossing her fingers that those assholes had just emptied their car and left with the supplies, but of course they weren't that lucky. The only thing they had left behind were their three dead "friends" and Blaine.

Rachel started to cry again, when she saw Blaine's dead body laying on the road. She tried to convince Santana that they should bury him, but Santana pointed out that it would take too much time to do that with the equipment they had and that the sun was already setting. That seemed to wake Rachel up, but she still asked if they at least could carry him away from the road. Santana refused her plea.

When it seemed like Rachel wanted to argue about her decision, Santana quickly explained to her that those creeps could come back tomorrow. If they saw that they had moved Blaine's dead body, they would know that they had been there and they would probably go looking for them again. "Because sex hungry guys like that will do a lot to get some." Santana was certain that all of them would be willing to risk bumping into some zombies "Just to get some of this." As she so elegantly put it to Rachel, while she pointed to her own body. So it all ended with Rachel rolling her eyes at Santana. Before she turned back around and looked at Blaine, with sorrow in her eyes and apologized to him for leaving him behind like that. Then they began their desperate search for a safe place to stay the night.


	12. Chapter 12

******Warning for chapter 12:** Cursing

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee_  
_

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

**AU part in this chapter: **Quinn has always lived in Lima. Santana has been childhood friends with her and Brittany since kindergarten (Not really important for this story, but I mention Lucy in this chapter. So I just wanted to make it clear that Lucy is Quinn as a child, before she changed her name)

* * *

**Chapter 12**

Santana and Rachel had quickly decided that it was best not to return to the village. They both knew that it would probably be easier to find food and shelter there, but since the sun was already setting it would be dark by the time they finally would reach it and neither of them wanted to travel through the village after dark. Especially since they had barely gotten away alive the last time they had tried to walk through it and that had been in broad daylight, even then not all of them had survived. Santana didn't want to think about how difficult it would have been, for the two of them, to try to get through the village after dark with zombies everywhere, trying to eat them alive.

So they quickly opted to still try to reach the house they had plan to go to all along, before they had been stopped by the roadblock. They both knew that it would get dark before they could get there, because of the distance to the house, but if they just kept walking on the road it would eventually lead them to the house, even if it got dark. Santana just hoped that they wouldn't bump into some bloodthirsty zombies on their way there.

They had been walking for a while in silence and the daylight was rapidly vanishing. Santana was just thinking about how much she was looking forward to a warm shower and some dry clothes, when they both heard and saw something in the distance farther down the road. Santana could feel Rachel moving closer to her and taking a hold of her hand in fear. Since it was already quite dark, it took a while before the blurry outlines in front of them got clearer. Rachel quickly tightened her grip on Santana's hand, when they both realized that it was a group of zombies that was heading in their direction. There were too many of them for Santana to kill alone or even if Rachel tried to help her, so they quickly turned around to start running back to where they came from. But to Santana's horror they spotted even more zombies coming out of the forest behind them, effectively blocking their way back. They had no other alternatives than to run away from the road and head down to the river again. Santana knew that their only chance to survive, was to jump into the water again and try to cross over to the other side. She just really hoped that zombies couldn't swim.

So Santana yanked Rachel with her and they both ran as fast as they could down to the riverbank and jumped into the water. Where they hurriedly swam towards the other side, but unluckily for Rachel the current was so strong that she had severe problems keeping up with Santana. In the end she had to shout out for Santana to come back and help her from being swept away by the current and being separated from her.

Santana didn't hesitate when she heard Rachel's call for help. She immediately turned around to help Rachel, when she saw how much she was struggling, but her heroic attempt to save Rachel only lead to both of them having problems. Instead of Santana saving Rachel they were now both in trouble. The current had taken a hold of both of them and swept them down the river. Their wet clothes and heavy backpacks were starting to weigh them down and the weight was slowly dragging both of the girls under the surface. It didn't help that Rachel was desperately clinging to Santana to stay above the water and dragging her even farther down with her.

Santana knew that they had to dump some weight or they would both end up drowning, but if they got rid of their backpacks they wouldn't have any food left and then they would end up starving instead. She quickly forgot about her dilemma, when Rachel dragged her under for the third time and she almost didn't manage to get up to the surface again.

After spitting out a mouthful of water, Santana quickly decided that the smartest thing to do was to dump the backpacks. She was just about to tell Rachel to drop hers, when she spotted a tiny island in the middle of the river and lucky enough the current was steering them straight towards it. So Santana quickly grabbed Rachel and hauled her up on the little patch of grass, in the middle of the river, before she managed to drag themselves up on dry land too. They both sat there looking like two drowned cats, panting for air and coughing up water. It kinda felt like they had swallowed the whole river.

Santana still managed to keep a watchful eye on the river, just in case someone had tried to follow them, but she couldn't see any of the zombies in the water so she guessed that they really couldn't swim. That helped a little on her mood, even though she still felt utterly miserable sitting there being cold and soaking wet. She could barely see Rachel beside her, because of the dark, so she scooted closer to her. Santana immediately felt that Rachel had started to shiver because of the cold, so she quickly took of her backpack off and motioned for Rachel to do the same.

"We need to change into warmer clothes, before we freeze to death. Lets just hope that everything is still dry" For the second time that month Santana silently thanked her crazy papà for teaching her to survive in the wilderness. Before the outbreak she had never appreciated him dragging her with him on his wild hunting trips, teaching her everything he knew about survival. Now however, she was extremely grateful for him teaching her to shoot and what you had to do to get the most out of your hunting trip.

As a former boy scout, he had taught her to always be prepared for everything. Santana was really happy about that lesson right now, but to be honest she hadn't been grateful about it when she was a little kid. Even though she at first had tried to please her papà, by trying to be more like him. That was one of the reasons she had asked him to join the girl scout like her friends. She really didn't know at the time that the girl scout wasn't the same as what her papà was always talking about, she learned that the hard way. He had sneered at her request and told her that no kid of his was going to sell cookies or knit quilts, because that was for girls. Apparently girl scouts didn't qualify as being mentioned in the same breath as the boy scout, according to her papà, because they weren't real scouts. Santana still hadn't understood the difference between girl and boy scouts, apart from the obvious boy and girl part of it. She just really wanted to go because Brittany and Lucy always told her how much fun it was, but her papà had told her to never bring it up ever again. The next day he took her hunting and made her kill her first duck, she didn't dare tell Brittany about that. Santana never asked to join the girl scout again.

Luckily for Santana she had two best friends, who always taught her everything they had learned at their scout meetings. They even gave her some of their own badges, so she wouldn't feel so left out. Santana never dared to bring them back home, because she was too afraid of what her papà would do if he found them. So Brittany had promised to keep them safe for her. She had even made sure to hide them in such a safe place, that even Lord Tubbington wouldn't find them. He had apparently already stolen some of Brittany's own badges because he, according to Brittany, also wanted to be a girl scout. Santana really doubted that Brittany's fat cat wanted to do anything other than eat and sleep, but she never said that because she knew that it would make Brittany sad. Lucy had just rolled her eyes at Brittany's explanation, but she hadn't dared to make fun of Lord Tubbington since she knew that Santana would beat her up if she made Brittany cry. Because Santana always beat up everyone that made her cry and Lucy really didn't want to get into a fight with Santana, because she knew that she would lose. So the two of them just stood there, watching as Brittany sprinted around her room to find a good place to keep Santana's badges, hidden safely away from Lord Tubbington's grabby paws.

Santana had often resented her papà for not letting her do "girly things" as he always put it, but right now she loved him with her whole heart. Because at this moment she and Rachel could put on dry clothes, thanks to him teaching her to always be prepared.

He had from an early age taught Santana to put everything in her hunting pack in plastic bags, just in case it started to rain before they could set up camp or if it started to rain when they were out hunting. Santana still remembered the one time she didn't do as he had told her to do and it started to rain before they reached the camp-site. Everything in her hunting pack had been soaking wet because of the heavy rain. As a punishment for not listening to him, her papà had made her wear her wet clothes to teach her a lesson. Which was: "Always do what I tell you to do!" She got her first pneumonia because of that, so she never forgot to do as her papà told her to after that day. That was the reason she always packed everything in plastic bags, even if she was just going on a school trip. The other kids would stare at her like she was insane or they would try to tease her about it, but they usually stopped if she just glared at them hard enough or beat the crap out of them to make them stop. They quickly learned to never mess with her again.

Santana was really happy that she had demanded that Rachel also had to pack her things in plastic bags, like her. Rachel had been really reluctant at first, but had quickly caved when Santana had snapped at her to "Just do it or I'll feed you to the zombies outside!" But right now Santana was too cold to even think about teasing Rachel, for almost not listening to her about this being a great idea.

It did help a little bit to get dry clothes on, but they were both still freezing and Santana thought that Rachel looked even colder than her. So she decided that she better help her out, before she turned into a Popsicle. Santana quickly put her arms around Rachel and hugged her tight to help her warm up. At first the hug was rather awkward because Rachel stiffened in surprise, but then she relaxed and hugged Santana back and all of a sudden Santana felt very warm. She tried to loosen the hug to be able to back up a little bit, but Rachel just tightened her grip and mumbled out a desperate "Please don't!" So Santana just gave in and melted back into the hug. They ended up holding each other till the sun came up again.

* * *

That night they had both slept badly and their bad mood didn't improve by the meagre breakfast they had to eat, or that they still could see some zombies wandering around near the riverbank. Just the sight of them made them both aware of the fact that they couldn't go back to that side again, so they knew that they had no other choice then to try and swim over to the other side. They put on their wet clothes again and with Santana's help they both managed to get safely across the river without drowning. After they had changed back to dry clothes, they started following the river downstream. They were still determined to get away from the village, so they headed in the direction of their old house instead.

The first problem they encountered was that the river kept turning farther and farther away from the road on the opposite side. They had been planning to follow the river on this side for a while, before they would try to cross the river again, but the longer they kept walking the farther away the road on the other side got. Because the river kept turning to the left and the road kept turned to the right. After a while they couldn't even see the road any more.

Santana wasn't paying attention to their surroundings, because she was worrying about what they were going to do now. She was about to turn around and ask Rachel what she thought they should do. When Rachel suddenly grabbed Santana by her backpack and yanked her backwards so she landed on her ass. The fall fucking hurt and that pissed Santana off. So she jumped up and turned angrily towards Rachel.

"Why the fuck did you do that?! Now my ass hurts!" Rachel looked pale, but she still smiled at her. That irritated Santana even more and she was about to yell at Rachel some more, but she quickly calmed down when Rachel started explaining.

"I'm sorry about that, but I think you'll agree with me that a sore behind is better than a broken body." Santana looked at her confused. Rachel took a hold of Santana and turned her around.

"Look down." Santana felt her heart almost stop beating, when she finally looked down to where Rachel was pointing.

They were standing right on the edge of a cliff.

Santana had been only a few steps away from walking right over the edge and falling down to a certain death. She would probably have walked straight over the cliff, if Rachel hadn't stopped her in time. Santana tried to calm her racing heart down, the sight had really shocked her. All she could think about was that she had almost died and left Rachel all alone. She tried to push away what it meant that she had thought about the last part, because that really shouldn't matter to her if she was death. So she quickly mumbled out a shaky "Thank you." to Rachel, without meeting her eyes.

"No problem. It was the least I could do, since you have saved my life so many times already." Santana finally dared to look up at a smiling Rachel and gave her a timid smiled back, but she quickly averted her eyes away from Rachel's and looked back out over the cliff instead. She could just barely make out the shape of the road, far away in the distance.

"So what are we going to do now?" It was probably more of a question to herself than to Rachel, but maybe she had a solution. Rachel shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know. What's our options?"

Santana thought about it for a while, before she sat down and motioned for Rachel to do the same. Rachel looked around a little bit frightened that they suddenly would get ambushed by zombies if they did, but she decided to follow Santana's example when she saw that they had a good view of their surroundings. It helped that it was impossible for anyone to sneak up on them from behind, because of the cliff. Santana quickly started explaining their options to Rachel.

"We have two choices. One: We keep walking on this side of the river, to try to find a way down this cliff and maybe get lucky and find a house we could stay in for the night. Or two: We try to cross the river to get back to the road again." Rachel looked a little scared and pointed at where the river disappeared over the cliff, to form a waterfall cascading down to the bottom.

"But the current and the cliff and-" Santana almost laughed and stopped her out of pity.

"I didn't mean that we should try to cross right here, so close to the waterfall. We would have to walk back for a bit before we try to swim over to the other side, my plan do not include killing ourselves." Rachel looked relived. Santana didn't know if she should feel offended about the fact that Rachel obviously thought so little of her ability to keep them alive, but she forgot all about that when Rachel asked another question.

"So if we decide to cross, what would we do when we get to the other side?" Santana sighed.

"Well if we swim to the other side and manage to find the road again, we then have two other options to consider. One: We could try to go back to the house we all along planned to drive to. Or two: We try to go back to the village and find a house to stay in there. Although both of those alternatives have some down sides. If we decide to go to our original destination there is no food for us there and we haven't got a lot of food with us, so we can't stay there for long. If we instead head back to the village we know that there's still a lot of empty houses that we could break into, that would most likely have some food left. But we also know that we probably would bump into at least on of those two groups of zombies, that we have already met before. Both groups have too many zombies for us to kill and if we meet them again we might not make it out alive this time. If we choose any of those alternatives, we also have to consider the risk of meeting those scumbags again. They may not return because they did get all of our food, but we can't be too certain of that since they might return just to look for us." Santana could see Rachel visibly stiffening at the mentioning of those guys, who had killed Blaine and tried to make them their sex toys. Rachel's voice wavered a little bit when she spoke.

"So what's the downside of choosing to stay on this side?" Santana bit her bottom lip and thought about it before she answered Rachel back.

"Well there's no guarantee that we'll find a way down to the bottom of this cliff. Even if we do, we might not find any houses or food and without food and shelter we're kind of screwed."

Rachel sat there quietly going over everything Santana had told her in her head, but everything always ended up with the conclusion that she really didn't want to risk meeting those guys again. She would rather die of hunger or get eaten by a zombie, than end up as a sex slave for the rest of her life. So she really didn't need too much time deciding what she wanted to do.

"So if we continue on this side, how long before we're out of food?"

"You packed all the food I told you to pack, right?" Rachel nodded.

"Good!" Santana smiled in relief that Rachel had actually listened to her. Then she quickly started to calculate how long their food would last.

"So we ate a little bit last night and early this morning, but if we try to eat as little as possible we might have enough for four days. At least that is what I'm hoping for."

"Four days! That's not long, especially if we can't find a house that has some type of food that we can eat." Rachel sounded scared. So Santana tried to reassure her.

"No it probably isn't, but if we get lucky we might find some edible things inside the forest. Don't forget that my papà thought me a lot of survival tricks and not all of them involves killing something to get food. Still if we have to, I'm an excellent hunter and fisher." That didn't seem to please Rachel. She was about to say something, but Santana stopped her by raising her hand up.

"Yes I know that you're a vegan and till now you've been lucky that you haven't had to eat meat or fish yet, but we both know that you might have to do that at one point, if you want to survive." Rachel sighed in defeat.

"I know. I have thought about the possibility of that happening for a long time already and I'm not looking forward to having to decide when the time comes, but right now I don't want to think about that. I do however think that we should continue to walk on this side, if you don't mind doing that?"

Santana was relived that Rachel wanted the same alternative as her, because she really didn't want to risk meeting those assholes. Hopefully she wouldn't have to see them again for the rest of her life, especially if she could avoid it. So she smiled back at Rachel and shook her head.

"No I don't mind, I actually think that's the best alternative." Rachel beamed back at Santana in response to her answer. Santana got up and helped Rachel stand up too. She looked up at the sun and then back at Rachel.

"Now that we have decided what to do we should probably get a move on, the sun won't stay up forever. But we should probably fill our water bottles first before we head into the forest, we don't know when we'll see water again." Rachel agreed. Santana was just hoping that there weren't any dead zombie laying in the water farther up the stream, polluting the water with something contagious, but she knew that at this point they just had to take that risk.

Then they started walking side by side, into the heart of the forest and the unknown.


	13. Chapter 13

******Warning for chapter 13: **Cursing and Violence

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 13**

Santana and Rachel had been walking for quite a while without seeing anything more than trees. They had been searching for a way to get down from the clifftop they where currently walking on, but it didn't seem like they were that lucky in finding one. After four more hours without any result, Santana was really starting to dread that the possibility of them having to sleep outside for the night, was going to become a reality. She wasn't looking forward to that at all.

The only upside to the situation they were in at the moment, was that they hadn't met any zombies yet. Santana guessed that most zombies probably didn't like hiking in the woods if they didn't have to, but she still preferred to be on the safe side and have some walls protecting her against them just in case. All though she was slowly losing all hope of finding a place to stay before the sun set.

Two hours later Santana felt relief wash over her, when Rachel shouted out in glee that she had spotted a group of houses at the bottom of a valley. Hopefully one of them would be empty, so they could sleep inside for the night. Rachel was immediately ready to run down the narrow trail she had found that would lead them down from the clifftop, but Santana quickly stopped her by taking a hold of her shoulder and effectively stopping her descent.

"Wait! I just want to check something before we head down."

Rachel didn't seem pleased, she looked to the setting sun and bit her bottom lip in worry. Santana was also concerned about the fading light, but she still needed to make sure that it would be safe for them to go down there. So she opened her backpack and brought out a tiny black pair of binoculars. Rachel frowned when she saw them and looked questioningly at Santana.

"Where did you get those?" Santana brought them up to her eyes to get a better look at what was waiting for them, at the bottom of the cliff, if they decided to go down there.

"Found them in one of the empty houses back in the village. I thought they would come in handy, always did when papà and I went hunting."

"Santana that's stealing!" Rachel looked outraged.

"Seriously Rachel! You got to stop saying crap like that. If you still haven't noticed, we live in a fucked up world right now and the law no longer applies. We won't get arrested for taking things any more and I should know, because I'm a lawyer!" Santana was really fed up with Rachel's constant nagging about what she should and shouldn't do, but she quickly calmed down after her outburst and continued. "But if it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure the owner didn't mind. I didn't hear him complain when I took them." Santana lowered the binoculars. Rachel looked at her angrily. Santana just ignored her and looked down to the valley again, before she shook her head in resignation.

"I really don't think we should go down there."

"Why not?" Rachel pouted in disappointment. She had been looking forward to getting to sleep in a bed again.

Santana had to stop herself from thinking that Rachel looked absolutely adorable with that pout. So instead she quickly handed the binoculars to Rachel to make her stop.

"See for yourself."

Rachel snatched them out of Santana's grip and looked down to the valley. Her heart jumped in her chest, when she was met by the sight of a hug group of zombies walking around outside the houses. She quickly looked around to see how many she could count, before she suddenly startled and dropped the binoculars. Santana quickly made a grab for them, to prevent them from being destroyed by the fall.

"What the fuck Berry! We need those. You have to be more careful!" It didn't look like Rachel was paying attention to Santana at all, she was still staring down at the valley and she looked a little shaky. That made Santana concerned and her voice softened.

"What's wrong?" Rachel turned to her and pointed down with a trembling finger.

"One of them turned around and looked right at me." Santana couldn't keep a straight face and she laughed out loud.

"Yeah right Berry. No way did one of them see you all the way up here, we can barely see them from where we're standing. You're just imagining things because you're tired." But Santana abruptly stopped laughing, when she looked down to the houses and suddenly saw those tiny black dots starting to draw nearer towards them. She quickly brought the binoculars up to her eyes again and looked down to the valley.

"Fuck! We have to get away from here."

"Wh-why?" Rachel's voice cracked in fear. Santana quickly grabbed Rachel's hand and dragged her inside the forest again.

"For some fucked up reason you were right and their heading this way. I don't know how long it will take them to get up here, so we better get a move on and get as far away as possible. Lets just hope that they'll have a lot of problems getting up that steep trail and just give it up, but I still wouldn't count on that happening. That's why we're not staying here any longer than we have to."

Still they hadn't walked more than ten steps before Santana suddenly stopped again. Rachel didn't understand why they had stopped, before Santana quickly opened her jacked and pulled out two guns. Which really confused Rachel because she knew for a fact that they had both lost their guns yesterday, when they almost drowned in the river. The only weapon she had thought that they had was the hunting knife, since it had been laying safely in Santana's pockets the whole time. But she hadn't known that Santana had more guns.

"Where-" Santana quickly stopped Rachel's question by shoving one of the guns into her hands.

"Not now Rachel! Just take the fucking gun!" Santana turned around and headed deeper into the forest, leaving Rachel not other option than to keep her mouth shut and follow her lead.

* * *

Santana quickly picked up speed and she was running so fast, that Rachel had difficulties following her. After Rachel, for the second time, tripped over a rock and almost face planted. She decided that she had to take a break and demanded that Santana had to stop. Santana reluctantly did so, while Rachel desperately tried to catch her breath and she even had to bend over to prevent herself from throwing up. Santana on the other hand didn't even look tired and she was constantly looking around for any danger nearby. She didn't look pleased about the fact that Rachel was taking her time and she was tapping her foot impatiently.

"We need to slow down Santana, I can barely breathe." Santana scoffed.

"You won't be able to breathe at all, if those zombies catches us and eat you alive."

"I know that Santana!" Rachel quickly snapped back at her. "I'm just asking that we slow down a little bit, just so I'm able to breathe."

"Fine! Can we go now?" Santana really didn't want to stay there too long. The light was even worse now, because of the forest surrounding them. The thought of them having to sleep outside really frightened her and she just wanted to find a place to stay for the night.

Santana did slow down, even if she really didn't want to, but Rachel still had problems following her fast pace. However it didn't last for long because Santana was soon forced to stop running, since she could barely see anything any more because of the bad lighting. She didn't want to risk that either of them ended up crashing into a tree and getting hurt. So they started walk through the forest instead.

Santana was really stressed out and she kept jumping at every little sound coming from somewhere inside the forest. Rachel tried to calm her down, but Santana told her to shut up and keep walking. When a flock of birds got scared by their presence and took to their wings to fly away, Santana almost had a heart attack. Rachel had to drop down to the ground, because she started waving her gun around like a mad women. Santana finally lowered her gun when she didn't see any zombies, but she was still looking around the forest. Her eyes were wild and she was breathing heavily.

Rachel got up from the ground and she hesitatingly approached Santana and quickly wrapped her arms around the trembling girl. They had been walking all day and they were both exhausted, the lack of sleep didn't help the matter and Santana was clearly stressed out. Rachel was afraid that if Santana didn't get any sleep soon, she would go completely mad. So she quietly whispered to her.

"We need to sleep Santana." The other girl quickly shook her head.

"No we can't. They might be following us." She barely managed to slur out the end of the sentence, before Rachel felt her drowse off on her shoulder. It lasted for only a few second, before Santana snapped back awake frantically looking around in fear.

"We need to sleep. You can barely keep yourself awake and I'm almost sleepwalking myself."

"We can't just lay down to sleep on the ground, what if we get attacked? We wouldn't stand a chance against them."

Rachel knew that Santana was right, but if they didn't get any sleep, they probably wouldn't be able to kill a zombie anyway if they met one, because they wouldn't be able to keep their eyes open long enough to pull the trigger. So Rachel was desperately trying to find a solution to their problem and when a lonely bird took off from one of the nearby trees, scaring them both, she got a crazy idea.

"How about if we try to sleep up in one of these trees. Zombies probably can't climb, but we can. So we would be safer up there than down here." Santana snorted in amusement.

"That is the dumbest idea I ever heard of Berry." But when she nodded off again before she could say anything more, she reluctantly agreed to try even if she thought the idea was completely ridicules.

They did have a hard time finding a suitable tree to sleep in, because of the dark, but they finally found a large tree with, what felt like, sturdy branches. They carefully climbed up in the tree and tried to find a safe place to spend the night.

At first they struggled to sit anywhere because of their backpacks. So they decided to take them off and hang them somewhere safe, where they wouldn't fall down. After they got rid of their backpacks, they soon found a place where they both could sit, without falling down if they fell asleep. Rachel had been lucky enough to find two tick branches that they could use to sit on, that also had a smaller branch a little higher up that could serve as a back-rest, so they could lean back without falling head first down to the ground below. It helped that Santana could lean most of her body against the trees sturdy trunk, which steadied her body even more. Then Rachel could sit beside Santana and lean her body up against Santana's body. It seemed really dangerous to even try to fall asleep, but to Santana it still felt a lot safer than sleeping down on the ground. So surprisingly enough it didn't take too long before they both fell asleep.

* * *

Rachel was the first one to wake up. She was still tired and she didn't know why she had woken up in the first place or how long she had been sleeping. The only thing she knew was that the sun had to be up, since it was so light inside the forest. She could even hear birds singing around her in the nearby trees. She had almost forgotten that they were sleeping up in a tree, so she quickly had to grab a hold of Santana to steady herself so she wouldn't fall down.

Her whole body hurt because of her awkward sleeping position she had been sitting in, but she was still considering going back to sleep again when she heard a twig break somewhere down below. Her heart immediately started to beat faster in fear, but even though she was scared, she still carefully looked down to see if she could see something. At first she didn't see anything because of the branches blocking her view of the ground, but when she decided to move to the branch opposite the one they had been sleeping on, she could clearly see the ground below.

Rachel had to slam her hand over her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, when she saw a zombie standing right under the tree. It still hadn't spotted her or Santana, so Rachel tried to stay completely still and hoped it would just move on if it didn't see them. It actually looked like it was about to walk away, but then Santana suddenly stirred in her sleep and started to mumble out something. Rachel desperately tried to get her to stop, by leaning over to where Santana was sitting to try to wake her up, but that was a bad idea. Because when she put her hand on Santana, to shake her awake. Santana shot up and tried to defend herself, against the unknown danger she was facing.

Rachel didn't have time to get away from Santana's flailing arms, before she got hit by one of them and then she was suddenly falling head first, down to the ground below. All she could think was that she was going to die, but at least she would break her neck before she got eaten by that zombie standing there. Before she had the time to pray that she would die quickly, one of her shoes got caught in one of the lower branches and suddenly she found herself hanging upside down by her foot. She could hear the zombie starting to growl under her, when he spotted her hanging there.

When nothing else happened, Rachel finally dared to open her eyes again. The first thing she saw was the zombie staring right back at her and trying to grab a hold of her. Lucky for Rachel she was just barely hanging out of reach from his hands, but it really scared her that she could feel the branch slowly giving away because of her weight. Rachel knew that the branch would break, if she didn't do something. She didn't know what she could do about it, but she quickly tried to think of a solution because she really didn't want to fall down to the ground and into the zombies waiting arms.

* * *

Higher up in the tree Santana had in horror realized what she had done. She had been dreaming that she and Rachel had been chased by a group of zombies. So when Rachel tried to wake her up, she had thought that she had been caught by one of them and had started to lash out to survive. Santana had opened her eyes just as she hit Rachel and she had seen her trying to grab a hold of something, unsuccessfully, before she fell backwards. Santana had desperately tried to grab a hold of her, but she hadn't been able to reach her in time. Because she had been forced to grab a hold of something, to prevent herself from falling down too. When she had finally managed to steady herself, it was already too late to save Rachel.

Now all Santana could think about was that she had killed Rachel. She didn't know if she could even bear to look down at her dead body, laying on the ground below. She knew that there were no way Rachel could have survived that fall, it was to far. Santana could feel the tears starting to run down her cheeks and she was seriously contemplating just shooting herself in the head. Because in that moment she felt like she had nothing more to live for, but when she suddenly heard a snarl followed by Rachel desperately screaming her name in fear, Santana didn't think about anything else than saving her. So she quickly hurried down the tree, not thinking about being careful. After climbing down a few branches, she saw the zombie standing under Rachel, trying to grab a hold of her.

Rachel wasn't moving at all, she had found out that if she did, the branch threatened to let her go. So she was now screaming for Santana instead and yelling at herself, inside her head, about being stupid for putting the gun in her backpack before she went to sleep. She had thought that she wouldn't need the gun, when they where up in a tree and she certainly hadn't expected this to happen. So she was berating herself for being so dumb, because she knew that if she had the gun in her pocket she at least could have tried to shoot the zombie herself, instead of screaming for Santana to come and save her.

When Santana saw Rachel hanging upside down, she knew that she wouldn't be able to lift her up by herself. So she quickly continued to rush down the tree and without thinking jumped down to the ground, with her gun ready to kill the zombie standing under Rachel. Unfortunately it was still a little bit to high up in the tree for her to jump down, so she toppled over because of the impact with the ground and the fall made her lose her gun.

The zombie didn't bother with Rachel any more and flung himself at Santana, who was laying on her back. Santana tried, as best she could, to keep him from biting her, but she had a hard time holding him away from her because of his weight, he was a lot bigger than her. Santana later wondered what they had been feeding people around there, since all the guys were so big and heavy. So Santana quickly tried to kick him off her instead, but it didn't work. She knew she was in trouble when her arms started to give away. Luckily that was the moment when the branch holding Rachel up, decided that it couldn't take her weight any longer and snapped. Rachel fell screaming down to the ground and landed right on the zombie's back and knocked him off Santana.

Since Rachel's landing had been softened by the zombie, she quickly got up to her feet. Santana on the other hand had gotten her wind knocked out of her, because of Rachel's fall on top of her and the zombie, so she had severe problems getting up from the ground. The zombie had no such problems and when he got up, he immediately started walking towards Rachel, since she was now closer to him than Santana was.

It looked like Rachel froze in fear, when he started heading towards her, but when Santana barely managed to wheeze out "Gun! Beside you!" Rachel quickly bent down to picked up Santana's gun and pointed it at the approaching zombie. Her hands were shaking and she knew, at the back of her mind, that she should pull the trigger, but she just stood there. She had never in her life killed anything living and she certainly had never killed something that still looked so much like a human being. In fact the only thing that told Rachel that the man in front of her wasn't human, was his eyes. Because he had the same soulless eyes that had been haunting Rachel's dreams, ever since her fiancé had turned around and looked at her with them. Those eyes was the one thing that had been bothering Rachel the most and kept her up at night. Those eyes had been the reason she had even started to think about why some of the zombies looked so human, while others looked nothing like humans at all.

* * *

Rachel had early on noticed the big difference between those zombies that looked human and those that didn't. She had even tried to talk to her friends about it, but Kurt had refused to talk to her about anything relating to them, Santana had just told her that she didn't care because they were all zombies anyway and Blaine had just shrugged his shoulders and told her that he didn't know why. Then when Kurt died she hadn't dared to bring it up again, but she had still kept noticed more and more differences. What she had noticed was that the zombies could be divided into two groups. One that looked like humans and one that didn't. Those that looked like humans were, after Rachel's opinion, the most dangerous group. She had come to this conclusion not only because they looked like humans, but also because they seemed to be a lot faster and looked much stronger, than those that looked more like Rachel thought zombies would look like.

The first time she had started to notice these differences were when they had been chased by zombies, for the second time, by the crash site. Because some of those zombies had almost caught up with them, while the others were too slow to even get anywhere near them. That was the moment Rachel had started to notice that those zombies that were the fastest, looked more human than those that struggled to keep up with them. She had even tried to tell the others about it when she first saw the differenced, but Santana had told her to shut up, so she had. Still she hadn't stopped thinking about it.

She had even started to wonder about it more, when she had gotten the chance to take a closer look at the two zombies, that Santana and Blaine had killed after the crash site and before they reached the two zombies had looked nothing like humans at all, they had looked awful. Both zombies had been extremely thin and bony, which had made them looked more like skeletons than humans. Their skins were pale and some places it had even looked like it was a sickening shade of yellow, even those eyes that had haunted Rachel had been yellow, something that had surprised her because Finn's eyes hadn't been that colour. Their skins had also been bruised and cracked all over. They had even had several big open wounds on their faces and arms, that smelled like someone had died. To be honest Rachel really thought that they both looked more like rotting corpses than like humans.

She had especially noticed the difference between the two groups, when they had entered the village and had been chased by a group of zombies towards the backyard of their third house. Because when she had closed the fence gate the only zombies that where there trying to get through, looked like humans, but when they later started to walk into the house there had been even more zombies outside the fence and they looked nothing like humans. That was the first time she really had the chance to see those two groups side by side and how different they looked. So Rachel had come to the conclusion that those zombies that looked like humans had to be faster than those that looked less human, but she still didn't know what it all meant. But now that she was face to face with yet another zombie that looked just like a human, she froze again, just like she had done with Finn.

* * *

Santana had finally gotten her breath back and she quickly shouted out "SHOOT RACHEL! SHOOT HIM!" while she desperately tried to get up onto her feet, to run towards Rachel, even though she knew she would never make it there in time to save her. Santana's shouting did however snap Rachel back to life and she quickly pulled the trigger, at the same time as the zombie in front of her leaned in to try to bite her. The gun shot echoed through the forest, before the zombie slumped over and fell down to the ground.

Rachel just stood there, with the gun still raised, staring at nothing with shock written all over her face. Santana had stopped running and now she was just looking at Rachel standing there, like she was frozen solid. Santana had been afraid of how Rachel would react to killing her first zombie and it didn't look like it was going to be good. Finally Rachel spoke.

"I killed him?" Santana was really worried about what she was going to do next, but then suddenly Rachel turned towards Santana and Rachel's mouth broke out in a huge smile.

"I killed him! I killed him! I killed my first zombie!" Rachel shouted out, as she started jumping up and down in joy.

Santana couldn't stop herself from smiling at Rachel's giddy enthusiasm and maybe she smiled a little bit because she was really proved of her too. So Santana let Rachel celebrate her achievement for a little bit longer, but she knew that it couldn't last. They still needed to get away from there, as quickly as possible, before they got swarmed by zombies that might have heard the shot. So she tried to, as nicely as she could, stop Rachel's victory dance by telling her that they could celebrate later when they where sitting safely behind four walls. That quickly brought Rachel back down, but she still had a smile plastered across her face for almost the entire day.

Santana quickly asked Rachel to keep a look out, while she got their backpacks down from the tree. It looked like Rachel didn't have any problems with that, because she was still beaming with pride. After Santana had managed to get them down, they started walking again and they kept walking the whole day. They didn't even stop to eat, because that was something Santana deemed possible to do while walking. Rachel accepted that, but she still gave Santana a long lecture about how it wasn't healthy to eat on the run and some crap about it being bad for their digestive system. Santana had completely ignored her after that speech.

But no matter how long they walked, they still didn't find anything other than trees and even more trees. Neither of them were happy about the fact that they didn't seem to find anywhere to hide for the night. When the light started to fade again Santana started to fear that they had to sleep outside in a tree, for the second night in a row. She really didn't want to do that ever again, because it really was a stupid idea in the first place and probably one of the dumbest things she had ever done. That in it self said a lot, because Santana had done so many stupid things growing up with Puck as her childhood friend and next-door neighbour. But even though she really didn't want to, she still started looking for a tree they could sleep in for the night.

After a lot of searching, Santana finally found a big tree, that seemed suitable to sleep in. She still needed to inspect the tree closer, so she looked up to see if the branches were big enough. Santana almost felt her heart stop, when she suddenly was staring right into two big eyes. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she might have screamed a little bit in fear and Rachel had quickly rushed to her side. Rachel had then started to giggle, when she saw what it was that had spooked Santana.

It was only a tiny owl, sitting on one of the lower branches, looking back at them with its big eyes.

Santana was about to tell Rachel to shut up, because it wasn't funny at all, when she registered some movement up ahead. So instead she quickly stopped Rachel's giggling by putting her hand over her mouth and signaled for her to be quiet. Rachel stopped smiling and looked back at Santana with fear in her eyes. Not long after they could both hear several feet, being dragged along the ground and they suddenly got a glimpse of something passing by on the other side of the tree. They both stood stock still as they heard, what Santana believed to be, a group of zombies pass them by on the other side of the tree.

The group had apparently not heard or seen them, so they were almost in the clear, but then that idiotic little Feather Ball decided to complain about Santana and Rachel still standing there. So it hooted out to signal its discontent. If Santana had the time and opportunity, she would have killed that fucking owl with her bare hands, but at the moment she had more than enough with getting away from the zombies.

Because the owl's hoot had made the last one of the zombies turn around and when he spotted Rachel and Santana standing there. He opened his mouth and snarled out something, that made the rest of them turn around too. Then the whole group quickly started to head back, to where Santana and Rachel were standing. All Santana could do was to shout out "Run!" and then they were running for their lives once again.


	14. Chapter 14

******Warning for chapter 14: **Violence

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 14**

Santana and Rachel were running for their lives. They could hear the zombies running after them and neither of them knew what they could do to escape them. The group had been too big to try to kill and that was the reason they were running away in the first place. The problem was that they had nowhere to hide, because everywhere they looked there were only trees. They could probably try to climb up in one of the trees to get away from them, but Santana was afraid that they wouldn't make it up in time before one of the zombies got a hold of either her or Rachel. So they just kept running.

However even that quickly became increasingly dangerous for them to do, because it was getting darker by the second. Still they had no other choice than to run as fast as they could, they just had to hope that they wouldn't run straight into a tree. Something a few of the zombies already had done, judging by some of the noises coming from behind the two fleeing girls.

The worst part was that some of the zombies didn't seem to have any problems following after them. They were even as fast as the two girls in front of them, which meant that Santana and Rachel didn't have a big lead. Santana was really concerned about the fact that those monsters chasing them probably weren't getting tired, like her and Rachel would be if this continued for much longer.

So when Rachel shouted "Is that a light?" All Santana could think about was to get to the source of that light, as fast as possible, in hopes that they could find a place to hide. The strange thing was that the light was moving too and when they came nearer, they heard a deep voice calling out "This way!" Santana wasn't overly trilled about the fact that it was a man, but right now she preferred to follow him rather than being eaten alive. She just hoped that he wasn't like one of those assholes they had encountered earlier.

It wasn't an easy task following after the little light in front of them, because of the many trees and the dwindling daylight. When the stranger suddenly took a sharp turn to the right, Santana feared that the guy in front of them was planning a trap for the two of them. That thought did however quickly disappeared when they a moment later reached a little cottage, where someone quickly opened the door the second the guy in front of them shouted out for them to do it. The three of them barged into the cottage and sank down to the floor, breathing heavily. Only a few seconds later they could hear the zombies outside banging and scraping at the door, trying to get in to kill them all. Though it appeared like they had no chance getting in, because the door looked to be made of hardwood and all the windows had been boarded shut, to prevent them from breaking in.

When Santana finally got her breathing under control, she quickly looked around the little cottage and saw three other people, besides the guy that had saved them, staring right back at her. Santana guessed that they probably were a family, since the people in the cottage consisted of one woman and two kids. Santana quickly looked away when she saw how frightened the two children looked, because of the constant attacks from the zombies outside. She decided instead to concentrate on Rachel, who was shivering in fear. So she carefully hugged her to calm her down and after a while Rachel relaxed into the hug and started breathing easier.

Three hour later it finally seemed like the zombies had given up and stopped their assault on the cottage. The guy that had saved them, looked at Rachel and Santana and quietly whispered.

"You can stay for the night, but tomorrow you have to go. We can't keep you here and we have no food for you." They both nodded their agreement. At least they would be safe for the night.

The little family went to sleep in the bed they were all sharing, but the guy, which Santana guessed was the father, stayed up. He obviously wanted to keep an eye on the two girls, who were sitting huddled together in one of the corners of the cottage. Santana tried to stay awake too. She didn't know if she could trust him and it looked like he didn't trust them either. So she whispered to Rachel that she should try to get some sleep and it didn't take long before she drifted off. Santana was fighting a losing battle herself and eventually she dosed off too.

* * *

Early the next day Santana was woken up, by someone kicking her in her left boot. She quickly grabbed a hold of her gun, that was laying beside her on the floor, but quickly lowered it again when it was only the guy from yesterday who was trying to wake her up. It looked like he was the only one awake, because his family were still sleeping. When he had gotten Santana's attention. He whispered to her while he pointed at Rachel, who was still asleep in Santana's arms.

"Wake her up and come with me. The zombies are gone for now, so we have to move before they come back. I'll follow you for a while, but after that you'll have to continue on your own." Santana nodded and carefully waked Rachel up.

Rachel didn't look particularly happy about having to go outside again, but she didn't protest and quickly followed after Santana out the door. Santana was relived that the guy had been telling the truth, because there really wasn't any zombies outside. They quickly followed after the man in front of them and they ended up following after him for two hours, before he finally stopped and looked at them.

"This is where I have to leave you. I need to get back to my family. I'm sorry that I couldn't let you two stay, but I have to put my family first and I hope you understand that." Both Santana and Rachel understood, so he continued talking. "If you keep walking in that direction." He pointed somewhere to their right side. "You'll come to a little community with several houses that I know are empty, but I do have to warn you that it isn't safe. There are a lot of those things roaming around here. So it's up to you if you want to go there. If you decide not to try your luck, there are many hunting cabins inside this forest, but they won't be so easy to find." He tilted his head up at the sun, before he looked back at the two girls. "Well, it's time for me to head back. Good luck!" He was about to turn around to leave, but Rachel quickly stopped him when she spoke up.

"Thank you for saving us!" He looked at Rachel, before he gave her a half-smile.

"It was the least I could do." Then he turned back around and left them standing there all alone.

"Good to know that it's not only douchebags that has survived." Santana looked at where the guy had quickly vanished behind some trees. She smiled, before she turned to Rachel.

"So what do you think we should do? Do you want to go find one of those cabins or do we try to get past those zombies to find a house to stay in?" Rachel looked deep in thought.

"Well he told us that those hunting cabins would be hard to find and if we're so lucky as to find one, there might not be any food there, which we desperately need more of. Also If we try to find one of those cabins, we could end up not finding any of them and then we have to sleep outside again." She looked at Santana with pleading eyes. "I really don't want to try to sleep in a tree ever again." Santana looked back at her a little bit guilty.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I really thought you were a zombie." Rachel waved her off.

"Forget it. You saved me in the end, so we're good. I don't blame you. I should probably have tried to wake you up more carefully, since we were up in a tree in the first place. So lets instead just concentrate on what we should do right now. As I said I'm not fond of the idea of us going on a wild-goose chase to find one of those cabins, so I vote for trying to locate those houses he was talking about instead. What do you want to do?" Santana bit her lip and then sighed.

"I agree. This forest is starting to freak me out and I don't want to sleep outside one more night, at least if we can avoid it. So I think we should try to find a house to sleep in, but we do need to be really careful. If we find that it's impossible to get to them, we should try to find one of those cabins instead." Rachel quickly agreed with her.

* * *

The two of them started walking in the direction the guy had pointed out. After a while the forest started to thin out and not long after they were standing at the edge of the forest, looking at a little group of houses in the distance. They didn't see any zombies or people anywhere. Even when Santana brought out her binoculars, to scope out their surroundings, did she see anything dangerously looking.

"So do we take the chance and run?" Santana's voice sounded hesitating and Rachel wasn't so sure herself.

"Yes, I think so?" Santana nodded, even though she didn't have a good feeling about what they were about to do.

"Okay. Here's the plan. We try to get to one of those houses surrounded by a fence. There will be a lot less chances for them to catch us, if there's a fence between us and them." She looked sternly at Rachel. "If we should get unlucky and those monsters block our way before we get somewhere safe, we have to turn back and try to lose them in the forest." Rachel didn't like the sound of that and it showed. Santana sighed. "I don't want to go back there either, but if there's too many of them for us to kill or if we can't get around them, then we have no other choice than to run back. You do understand that, right?" Rachel nodded reluctantly, but Santana wasn't satisfied with her answer. "Rachel! I need to know that you will listen to me and turn around if I tell you to!" Rachel looked back at her, clearly irritated.

"Yes of course I'll turn around Santana! If you tell me to do something, I promise to do it. Happy?" Santana rolled her eyes.

"Extremely. Now let's go and keep your eyes open. We'll start slow, but if we see any zombies then we start to run, but only if we can make it to one of those houses in time. If not we turn around, especially if there's too many of them."

* * *

They carefully started approaching the group of houses in the distance, but it didn't take long before they could see one scrawny looking zombie coming out from behind one of the houses. Santana immediately whispered to Rachel that if it was just that one she could kill it when it came closer, but when the zombie saw the two of them it opened its mouth and a high snarl came out. Suddenly a whole bunch of zombies came running out from behind the rest of the houses, as if the first one had told them that dinner was served. Santana and Rachel quickly realized that there were way too many of them for Santana to kill on her own, even if Rachel helped her, they had no chance of making it to any of the houses in front of them. Santana didn't need to tell Rachel to turn around and run.

It didn't take the two girls long to reached the beginning of the forest again, but they could hear in the distance that the zombies had taken up the hunt and were running after them. So Santana ran as fast as she could into the ticker part of woods, hoping that it would slow down the zombies. What she didn't count on was for Rachel to trip in on of the tree roots and fall down to the ground.

Rachel had already been far behind Santana, because of the difficult terrain they had to run through. So Santana didn't hear her fall, but she hear her scream for help. She quickly turned around and saw one of the faster zombies approaching Rachel, who was still laying on the ground. Santana knew that she would be risking her own life if she ran back, but she didn't care. So she ran back as fast as she could and shot the zombie, as it was about to bend down to bite Rachel, before she quickly yanked Rachel up from the ground. Santana decided to hold on to Rachel's hand and used it to drag Rachel after her, while she tried to shot some of the closest zombies.

Since Santana had to shoot any approaching zombies, while they kept running and at the same time watch out for Rachel. She didn't notice that they were rapidly approaching the top of a ravine. Rachel did however see it. She desperately tried to warn Santana, but it was too late. When Santana finally tried to stop, because of the danger ahead, it didn't help. Her attempt only ended up with Rachel slammed into her, when she tried to stop at the edge of the ravine. The impact with Rachel pushed Santana over the edge and down into the ravine and as a result of Santana's fall, she ended up dragging Rachel with her because of their joint hands. Suddenly they were both tumbling down the steep ravine.

* * *

It didn't take long before they found themselves at the bottom of the ravine. Santana felt her whole body ache because of the fall, but luckily they were both still alive since the ravine wasn't too deep. Santana quickly looked up and saw a handful of zombies looking down at her. To Santana's relief not one of them tried to jump down after them, but it was clear to her that they were still looking around for a way to come down there. So even if they weren't stupid enough to run over the edge, they were still trying to find another way down and that scared her. So Santana quickly decided to get as fast as possible away from the ravine, to prevent the two of them from being trapped inside it, if those zombies were lucky enough to find a way down. She turned to Rachel, who was still sitting on the ground.

"We need to get out of here, before those bastards find a way down and trap us inside this ravine. Because if they do, we have no chance of surviving." Rachel didn't respond, she was furiously rubbing one of her ankles instead.

Santana didn't feel that they had any more time to waste, so she quickly yanked Rachel up to her feet, but that only resulted in Rachel screaming out in pain and falling down to the ground crying in agony. She was desperately clutching her ankle and sobbed out.

"I-I think I hurt m-my ankle when I landed." Santana immediately felt her heartbeat speed up.

She quickly crouched down and inspected Rachel's, now clearly swollen, ankle. It didn't take long before Santana had determined that Rachel had a severely sprained ankle. Santana was relived that it wasn't broken, but she still knew from her own experience, as a former cheerleader, that Rachel had sprained her ankle so badly that she couldn't walk or run on it any time soon. This was really bad news for the both of them.

Rachel knew that too, because she had years of ballet classes behind her. She had herself seen that this type of injury had benched some of the other dancers for a long time, some even as long as three months, so she immediately knew that they were in big trouble. Because there were no way she could walk and if they just stayed there, the zombies would eventually find a way down. Then they would be trapped inside this ravine and that would surely mean that they would be doomed, they would both die. So she looked up at Santana with tears in her eyes.

"Go! Run! You can still get away. We both know that I can't walk any more and if you stay, we're both dead and if you die it would be my fault. So please go. Save yourself, before it's too late. Please! Just leave me here and go!" Rachel had refused to look up at Santana, while she desperately begged for her to leave her there and save herself. She had finally let her tears fall and if she had dared to look up at the other girl, she would have seen that Santana was crying too.

Eventually Rachel heard that Santana started moving away from her side, but she still didn't look up at her. She couldn't bear to see Santana leave her behind all alone, because the sight would for sure break her heart. What Rachel didn't expect was to suddenly be lifted up from the ground. She squeaked in surprise.

"Santana what are you doing? Put me down!" Santana didn't listen and started walking down the ravine with the injured girl in her arms. Rachel tried to squirm out of Santana's grip, so the other girl puffed out in irritation.

"No way am I leaving you behind Berry, so stop moving and shut up! I need to concentrate, so I don't drop you down on your ass."

Santana was suddenly thankful for all those years of grueling training, that her old cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester had put her through. Because it felt like that had been a great preparation for the situation she suddenly found herself in right now. She was also grateful for the fact that Rachel didn't seem to weigh that much, even with her backpack on. Santana almost felt like teasing Rachel about the fact that her being tiny finally came in handy, but at the moment she had more than enough with trying not to trip or drop Rachel. She knew that she couldn't do this for too long, but she still wasn't giving up so easily. What really helped Santana get the needed motivation to make it out of that ravine, was the fact that she was still angry at Rachel for even thinking that she would just leave her behind to die, without even trying to save her. That in itself certainly helped her when she felt like giving up, because she really wanted to prove Rachel wrong about the fact that she obviously thought that Santana would just leave her behind to die.

They both breathed a sigh of relief, when they finally reached the end of the ravine. Santana quickly put Rachel down and stretched her sore muscles. It seemed that they had come to the beginning of a little lake and they both smiled, when they saw a tiny boathouse on the other side of it. If they could just get over there, then maybe they could spend the night inside it.

Santana just hoped she had the strength to carry Rachel around the lake and that she could do that without any zombies popping up to try to eat them. She still didn't know if those things would manage to find a way down from the top of the ravine, but she wasn't going to wait here to find out if they did. So she quickly grabbed Rachel again and lifted her up and kept walking forward, as fast as she could. To Santana's dismay she still had to take a couple of breaks to catch her breath, but they finally made it to the boathouse without any zombies trying to kill them.

* * *

Santana carefully tried to opened the boathouse door, with her gun ready in case of any danger, since the door wasn't locked, but the only thing inside was a little white rowboat and some fishing equipment. So she quickly got Rachel inside and closed the door behind them and locked it from the inside with a cabin hook. The hook didn't look too sturdy, so she decided to try to block the door with the row-boat, just to make sure that no one could get in. When she finally was satisfied with her work, she dropped down beside Rachel. It had been a long day and she was totally exhausted.

The second Santana sat down, Rachel flung her arms around Santana's neck and hugged her so tight that Santana had problem breathing. Rachel just kept clinging to her for dear life, while she cried in misery. She kept sobbing out "Thank you for not leaving me." over and over again, till she finally cried herself to sleep in Santana's arms.

It took Santana a lot longer to fall asleep, even if she was utterly exhausted. Because she kept looking at Rachel and contemplating what she had to do. Everything had become so much more complicated now, since Rachel couldn't walk on her own anymore. Sure they were safe for tonight, but they barely had any food left. So they couldn't stay there any longer, they had to move, but that wasn't possible when Rachel was hurt. When Santana finally came to a decision, she quickly fell into a restless sleep, dreading how Rachel would react to what she had to tell her when she woke up tomorrow.


	15. Chapter 15

******Warning for chapter 15: **Violence

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 15**

The next day Santana told Rachel about her plan and as she had feared Rachel wasn't happy about it at all.

"I don't want you to leave!"

Santana just stood there looking at Rachel, if she hadn't known any better she was starting to believe that Rachel was having a temper tantrum. To be honest she really thought that Rachel was behaving like a five-year old right now. She had even tried to stomp her foot on the ground, something she obviously couldn't since her ankle was sprain. So instead Rachel had to settle for pouting like a petulant child, while she kept on whining about Santana leaving her all alone in the boathouse. If it hadn't been so irritating, it would have actually been a little bit cute, but Santana didn't have the time to think like that, so she quickly decided that Rachel's behaviour was unacceptable.

"Rachel stop! You know that we can't stay here for much longer. This place isn't safe enough and we need more food. I'm a lot faster than you right now, so the smartest thing is for me to travel alone. I can't find us a safe place to stay, if I have to carry you around the whole time. So I'm going alone and you're staying right here! You can just stop whining about it, because I'm going whether you like it or not!"

Rachel didn't say anything more, but she didn't stop pouting. Santana knew that she had to get out of there immediately, when she started wondering if Rachel would finally stop pouting if she kiss it away. She really didn't know where that thought had come from. So she quickly shook her head to get rid of the many images, that had suddenly started flashing before her eyes, of the two of them making out. Instead she quickly pointed at the boathouse door and gave Rachel a death glare.

"You are not allowed to open that door! Whatever happens, it will remain locked. You are only allowed to open it when I knock and ask you to open. Is that clear?" Rachel nodded, but felt forced to answer when Santana just kept staring at her. Clearly irritated, she huffed out.

"Yes, it's crystal clear."

Santana seemed to be satisfied with Rachel's answer and walked over to her own backpack. She grabbed a little bit of food, her gun, the hunting knife and some of the extra ammo that she had been smart enough to pack with the two extra guns, before they left the village. Then she turned back to Rachel.

"I'm not taking the backpack with me. I can move a lot faster and quieter without the extra weight." Santana sighed, when she saw that Rachel was crying. She walked up to Rachel and dried some of the tears on her cheeks away, with her thumb. Santana tried to calm the obviously frightened girl.

"I'll be back as quickly as I can. All you have to do is sit here and wait for me, okay?" Rachel nodded and closed her eyes, when Santana placed a light kiss on her left cheek. Then Santana hugged her tight and whispered in her ear.

"I promise that I will come back for you." Rachel couldn't help it, but those words made her cry even more. Santana let go of her and moved towards the door.

"Remember don't hesitate if you have to use your gun and always aim for their heads." Santana tried to give Rachel a reassuring smile, but it was really hard to do when the girl in front of her looked completely heartbroken.

"I'll be back soon. Don't forget to lock the door!"

Santana opened the boathouse door and carefully looked around, before she quietly stepped out and closed the door behind her. She waited outside till she heard Rachel place the hook back in place, before she quickly walked to the other side of the boathouse and slowly looked around the corner. She wanted to make sure that there weren't any zombies, at the other side of the lake by the ravine, luckily she didn't see anyone there.

Santana had been wondering where she should try to look for a safe place first. She knew that she didn't have a lot of options, because they were still surrounded by that stupid forest no matter where she turned to look. She had finally decided to keep away from the ravine, in case any of the zombies had found a way down. So Santana quickly turned her back to the ravine and started walking past the boathouse and further into the heart of the forest.

* * *

Rachel was a mess. She couldn't stop crying. All she wanted was for Santana to come back and stay with her. Deep down she obviously knew that it was for the best that Santana went by herself, but that didn't stop her from breaking down. She was terrified that Santana wouldn't come back, that she would end up being killed by a zombie or taken prisoner by some sex deranged men. Rachel almost went into a panic attack, when she suddenly thought about the possibility that maybe Santana wouldn't come back because she didn't want to. That she had finally realized that she didn't need her any more. Rachel knew that she was just a burden for Santana, especially now that she couldn't even walk. So maybe Santana had finally had enough of dragging her around and wanted to stop risking her life to keep the other girl alive. In the end Rachel found herself sitting in one of the boathouse corners, rocking back and forth, crying her eyes out and picturing every horrible scenarios she could think of that could happen to Santana and herself.

When the daylight faded away outside and there still were no sign of Santana, Rachel finally lost all hope of ever seeing her again. She was crying so hard that she almost didn't hear the sound coming from outside the boathouse, but when the she heard it again she instantly smiled because it obviously had to be Santana. Unfortunately her happiness was short-lived, because she quickly figured out that it was something scratching at one of the sides of the boathouse. Then the same sound came from the opposite side of the boathouse. When Rachel realized that it couldn't be Santana, she started freaking out. Suddenly she was picturing the whole boathouse being surrounded by zombies. In her head they were obviously trying to get in, to eat her alive. Soon every little sound that came from outside the boathouse, seemed to scare Rachel to death and it was slowly driving her insane. So as a last resort, she quickly crawled under the tipped over row-boat to hide from it all. It made Rachel feel a little bit more secure, but she was still terrified and she was hugging the gun close to her heart just to feel safer. Still it didn't stop her from thinking about the zombies trying to get in or that Santana was out there all alone, trapped outside in the forest at night. Maybe she was even laying somewhere dead or worse maybe she had been bitten and was now waking around trying to find Rachel to kill her too. Rachel ended up cried herself to sleep, desperately wishing that Santana would come back to her in the morning.

* * *

The next day Rachel was abruptly woken up from her sleep by a gunshot, followed by Santana shouting for her to get the door open. She hurried to the door, as fast as she could, while hopping on one foot. When she finally managed to open the door, she was greeted by Santana quickly stumbling inside. Rachel immediately closed the door behind her and turned around to look at the other girl. What she saw made her gasp in shock.

Santana was almost completely covered in mud and she was bleeding from several open wounds on her face and arms. Rachel instantly panicked, thinking that she had been bitten by zombies. She almost pulled out her gun to aim it at the other girl, but Santana quickly managed to calm her down by explaining that she had only been chased by zombies, not bitten. She was bleeding because she had ended up being chased down a steep hill. In her hurry to get away from her pursuers, she had tripped and fallen into a muddy creek. Where she had ended up hurting herself on some of the pointy rocks she had landed on. That was the reason she was so dirty and bleeding. Only one of the zombies had managed to cross the creek and followed after her to the boathouse, but Santana had killed it.

When Santana had finished her story, Rachel immediately threw herself at Santana and kissed her. Before she desperately hugged Santana close to herself and refused to let her go. She was crying and occasionally she sobbing out a mix of words like "You didn't leave me.", "I thought you were dead." or "You came back for me." over and over again. Santana was too shocked to say anything, because of the kiss, so she just stood there staring down at Rachel, who had her face desperately pressed as far as she could into Santana's neck.

It took a while, but eventually Rachel calmed down. Santana had in the mean time decided to not bring up the kiss. It had probably just been a strange reaction to Rachel being so happy, because of the fact that Santana hadn't been bitten after all. That was anyway what Santana chose to believe, because she really didn't think that Rachel had meant to kiss her in the first place, at least not on the lips. It didn't even look like she remembered doing it or at least she wasn't think about it like Santana was. Because Rachel was at the moment fully concentrated on cleaning Santana up and fixing every bump and scratch, that she had been inflicted with because of the fall. While she, at the same time, was asking Santana to tell her everything that had happened to her. Santana was just grateful for the distraction, so she gladly told Rachel the whole story.

* * *

When Santana had left Rachel she hadn't found anything at first, but after two hours she had finally located a little creek. She had quickly decided to follow it, to see where it came from. It had taken several hours and it was almost dark, when she finally came to the little lake that the creek had started from. To Santana's joy she saw a hunting cabin standing not far away from the lake. There hadn't been any light inside, so she carefully tried to knock on the door. She really wanted to avoid getting shot, in case someone lived there, but luckily no one answered. Unfortunately the door was locked and Santana was contemplating breaking a window to get inside. She had looked around to find something that could be of use and the first thing she saw was a rock laying by the door. So she quickly picked it up, to use it to break the window, but when she lifted it up it almost didn't weigh a thing. She immediately figured out that it had to be a fake rock and it didn't take her long to find the spare key inside the secret compartment. It probably would have been a good hiding place, if the owners hadn't put the rock right beside the door.

Santana didn't find anyone inside the cabin and it didn't look like anyone had been there in a while. She had however been lucky enough to find some canned food in the kitchen and the storage room, where she also had found some fishing gear. Early the next morning she had even located a little row-boat outside, she hadn't seen it the day before because of the dark, so that meant that they could catch some fish to eat. Rachel had scrunched up her nose at that, but Santana had just ignored her and continued her story.

She then told Rachel about her bumping into a group of zombies on her way back, but she wasn't sure if it was the same group that had chased them down the ravine. The rest of the story Rachel already knew, but Santana still told her everything again when Rachel asked her to. She really didn't mind telling the story more than once. Because she was a little bit proud that she had managed to get away from the group, even though she had been hurt.

Rachel knew that Santana was being so excited about telling her the story, because she was happy that she was still alive and that she had kept her promise to Rachel about coming back for her. However Santana's enthusiasm quickly fell, when Rachel asked her how they were going to get passed the group to get to the cabin. Rachel did feel guilty about ruining Santana's happiness, but she had been thinking about her bad ankle the whole time Santana had told her story. So she needed for Santana to tell her that she had a plan and that they would make it, but when Santana's smile fell she instantly knew that she hadn't thought about that. As a result of that Rachel had for the last ten minutes been sitting on the ground, watching Santana trying to come up with a good plan. When Santana finally looked up from the ground, she looked defeated.

"We'll just have to try, even if they are still out there." Rachel was about to protest, because she really didn't like that solution, but Santana stopped her.

"Only one of them managed to follow after me over the creek. So we'll just have to stay on this side and hope that none of the others have managed to cross over. Still to make sure that we don't bump into them, I'll just take a little detour away from the creek, but don't worry I'll still get us to that cabin. It will just take a while longer to get there."

"But you used a day to walk there on your own, how are we supposed to get there when you'll have to carry me or support me the whole way there?" Rachel sounded afraid. Santana gave her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah I used a whole day to get there, but that's because I first walked in several different directions before I found that creek and followed it to the cabin. It didn't take me that long to get back today, it's not even dark outside yet." Santana pointed to one of the small boathouse windows. The sun was still shinning and the sight helped Rachel calm down a little bit, but she was still not looking forward to going outside again. Santana continued talking about her new plan.

"We need to start walking early tomorrow, when the sun comes up. We'll just have to be careful and keep our guns ready, in case we do bump into them again. At least there's one less now."

Santana tried to get Rachel to relax, but it apparently didn't help since she had started biting her nails in anxiety. Something that annoyed Santana so much, that she decided to stop her by hugging her instead. Rachel was a little bit shocked by the unexpected hug, but she immediately melted into Santana's embrace. It really helped her calm down.

They later decided to try to go to sleep early, but not before Santana made Rachel eat something. Rachel had been too frightened and anxious to eat anything, since Santana left the day before. So when Santana found out about it, which wasn't too hard since she just had to look at how much food they had left, she forced Rachel to eat. Rachel didn't complain too much, since her stomach was a lot better after Santana had returned.

That night Rachel didn't even have to go to sleep in a panic, because Santana was brave enough to find out that the scratching on the boathouse walls were caused by some of the branches from the nearby trees. The wind would occasionally take a hold of the branches and sweep them over the boathouse sides. Rachel felt a little bit stupid for panicking last night, but it helped that Santana wasn't laughing at her. At least that made Rachel feel a little bit better. That night she didn't have any problems falling asleep, because she knew that Santana was sleeping right by her side and not running around in the forest being chased by zombies.

* * *

Rachel was still reluctant to leave the boathouse the next day, but she finally gave up when Santana reminded her that they would soon run out of food and then they would die either way. So after Santana had checked that there were no zombies lurking outside, she let Santana carry her out of the boathouse. Rachel had to bite her tongue, to prevent herself from screaming, when she saw the dead zombie laying right outside the door. The sight gave her chills. It didn't help her heart calm down when Santana told her to stay by the door. While she walked past the dead body to look around the corner, to make sure that they didn't bump into any zombies on the other side. Rachel was seriously terrified that the dead zombie would suddenly jump up, when Santana walked by and bite her, but of course nothing happened. Rachel was still relived when Santana finally came back to her, after checking that the coast was clear. Then Santana lifted Rachel up and started walking into the forest again.

As they started walking inside the forest again, Rachel was super aware of everything around them. She had been given the responsibility to keep an eye out for any dangers, since Santana couldn't do it herself. She had more than enough with trying to concentrate on not tripping and dropping Rachel. It was really messing with Rachel's mind and she was probably more exhausted than Santana, when they finally decided to take their first of many breaks that day. Still Rachel hadn't seen any zombies yet, but that was probably because Santana had opted to take a detour. It was a much longer route, but it kept them away from the creek and hopefully the group of zombies. It would probably have stressed Rachel out even more, if she had know that Santana didn't exactly know where they were going. The problem was that since Santana couldn't follow the creek, like she had done yesterday, she wasn't completely sure where they where. Still she secretly hoped that she would be able to bring them to the other side of the hunting cabin and to safety.

It certainly wasn't an easy task for Santana to carry Rachel around in the forest and try to navigate at the same time, but they still made it to the hunting cabin as the sun was setting. Santana sighed in relief when she finally saw the cabin, because for the last hour she had really started wondering if they were walking in the wrong direction. She was really happy that they had made it there, even if she had started doubting herself towards the end. It felt even better to finally be safely inside the cabin behind a closed door, where she was finally able to put Rachel down without being scared of someone attacking them. Santana immediately tried to stretch out some of her sore muscles, but she quickly found out that she could barely move her arms any more. Rachel was too busy looking around the cabin, to notice Santana's discomfort.

The hunting cabin wasn't big. They were currently standing in the largest room, that was a combined living room and kitchen. Rachel could see that there were two other doors leading out of the main room. She guessed that they probably lead to the bedroom and the storage room, that Santana had mentioned. Rachel wasn't particularly trilled about the fact that they had no bathroom, which meant that they had to go outside, but she quickly reminded herself of the fact that it could have been so much worse. She was dragged out of her thoughts, when she finally heard Santana groan out in pain. She quickly turned around, because of the sound and saw Santana frantically trying to get her arms to work again. Rachel immediately demanded that Santana should lay down and let her give her a massage, it was the least she could do to repay the other girl for carrying her around all day.

Santana wasn't going to refuse a free massage and she hurried to lay down on the little green couch that was standing in the living room. It didn't take long before she found out that Rachel had magic hands and she was really enjoying herself, maybe a little bit too much after Rachel's liking. Because Santana kept moaning in delight, as Rachel kneaded her sore muscles. When Rachel finally finished the massage, she was relived that Santana was too tired to notice how red her face had become because of Santana's constant moaning.

If it had been up to Santana she would probably have fallen asleep on that couch, after the best massage she had ever had, but unfortunately Rachel needing help to get to the bedroom. Santana was barely able to keep her eyes open, while she tried to support Rachel to the bedroom and she almost fell asleep on the way there. When they finally entered the room Rachel noticed that they had to share a bed together, but since it didn't seem to bother Santana it certainly wasn't going to bother her. So she didn't say anything and climbed into the bed after Santana, who had just dropped face first onto the bed. Santana was so tired that she didn't even complain, when she felt Rachel spoon her from behind. The last thing she remembered was Rachel leaning in and kissing her on the cheek while she mumbled out a quiet "Thank you." before she finally drifted off to sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

******Warning for chapter 16: **Cursing and Violence

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 16**

Santana had decided that they should try to stay in the hunting cabin for as long as possible, hopefully at least till Rachel's ankle was better. Santana gladly used the waiting time to go fishing on the lake outside, with the little row boat she had found. It was really nice being out on the water and for the first time since the outbreak started, Santana felt calm. She loved the feeling she got when she was sitting in the boat, all alone, just waiting for the fish to bite and listening to the birds singing in the trees nearby. She almost felt safe out there, probably because she didn't have to fear any zombies suddenly attacking her, since she was surrounded by water. She didn't know for sure if those monsters could swim or not, but as long as they hadn't learned how to walk on water, she would be able to detect them long before they could reach her out there. They probably weren't dumb enough to try to swim out to the boat in the first place, they would more likely wait for her to get back to the shore before they tried to attack her. So she really felt a lot safer out there, than she did on land.

Rachel had refused to come with Santana on her fishing trips, because she apparently didn't condone fish murder, but it didn't last for long when she quickly got bored sitting all alone in the cabin waiting for Santana to return. So she eventually decided to come along and stare at Santana disapprovingly instead.

Rachel's obviously childish behaviour didn't faze Santana at all. Even when Rachel wrinkled her nose in disgust, as Santana happily ate her newly caught fish and Rachel was eating her can of baked beans, did she react. She had decided to be the bigger person of the two of them and just let it go. Well that wasn't entirely true. She might have blown some of the fish smell over to Rachel's side of the table, just to mess with her. Santana was still a little bit angry at Rachel, because of her constantly demanding that Santana had use separate kitchen tools, plates and cutlery for anything she cooked that wasn't vegan. So she had finally decided to take revenge.

It had been hilarious at first, because Rachel really hated the smell of cooked fish, but Santana did feel a little bit guilty afterwards when Rachel quickly ran to the kitchen sink and threw up. So apparently Rachel constant whining about her not being able to stomach the smell of fish, wasn't just her being a big baby. Who knew she was actually telling the truth? Santana really thought she was just making things up to make her feel guilty about eating fish, but apparently she wasn't kidding about getting sick because of the smell.

Even though Rachel refused to eat fish and really couldn't take the smell of it, Santana still tried to get her to eat some of the fish she had caught. She was really concerned that Rachel was eating so little, because for the most parts she only ate canned baked beans, since it wasn't a lot of other choices for her at the moment. Santana had quickly concluded that the owner of the cabin must have loved them, since he had a whole stack of cans in the storage room. So Santana tried as best as she could to convince the stubborn girl that she needed to eat something else, but regardless of whatever she said Rachel still refused to eat anything that had at one time moved and breathed on its own.

At first Santana had just let it go, because she had at least succeeded in getting Rachel to finally agree to eat like a vegetarian. Which meant that Rachel could eat some of the few vegetarian things, like the cans of pasta, they had found in the kitchen pantry and storage room. But after most of the things Rachel could eat was gone, she had ended up almost only eating baked beans for a whole week. Which had eventually resulted in Rachel laying on the couch, for the second day in a row, clutching her stomach in agony. That was the tipping point for Santana and she had finally had enough of Rachel's stubbornness. She had laid down the law and demanded that Rachel had to eat fish instead of more beans, because they were clearly making her sick. Rachel had weakly tried to stand up to protest, but she quickly sunk back onto the couch again because of the overwhelming pain she felt. She had eventually reluctantly agreed to try some of Santana's cooking the following day, after Santana threatened to force feed her if she didn't start listening to her. So the next day Santana set to the task of making Rachel finally eat something that wasn't vegetarian.

* * *

To be honest Santana really did try to make Rachel's first fish dinner as bearable for her as she could, she had even used her previous experience with fussy eaters to make Rachel's meal taste fantastic. When she finally finished making their dinner, she had ended up using a lot more time and energy than she had thought she would have and she was strangely enough really nervous for Rachel to taste what she had made her.

At first Rachel was only picking at her dinner and screwed her nose up in disgust, but after some mild threatening from Santana about feeding her to the zombies if she didn't hurry up, she reluctantly took a bite. Santana was looking at her anxiously.

"How was it?"

Rachel looked up from her plate and saw Santana sitting there, with excitement gleaming in her eyes. She really didn't like the taste and all she wanted to do was to spit it out immediately, but she ended up reluctantly swallowing it down. Mostly because she didn't want to make Santana mad. So she diplomatically, tried to lessen the blow.

"It didn't taste as bad as it smells."

Santana's face immediately fell, but she quickly tried to hide it by looking down at her own food and grumbled out.

"Just shut up and eat it!"

She was so disappointed that Rachel hadn't liked her cooking. She had tried every trick she knew and she knew a lot of them because of her crazy little sister, who had been a really fussy eater that never liked anything. So Santana's mamà had taught her, when she was younger, everything about how to cook for picky eaters. She had truly believed that Rachel would love her cooking. Okay maybe not love it, she was after all a vegan, but at least like it. Santana was actually fucking pissed at Rachel for not even trying to like her cooking. She had used a lot of time and energy on making that food and she had done everything she could to make it taste good.

Rachel could visibly see Santana's mood change, so she didn't dare to say anything more and settled for trying to eat a little bit more of her dinner instead. It really wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, because Santana had done an excellent job trying to hide the fish taste with some of the spices she had found in the kitchen cupboards. She had even cut her fish piece so delicately, that it didn't even look anything like a fish dinner. So Rachel knew that Santana had really tried her best to make her something, that she hoped Rachel would enjoy. She felt really guilty for not liking it.

* * *

The problem was just that she got really nauseous from the fish odour every time Santana cooked fish and all she wanted to do was to throw up because of the smell. The need to vomit had decreased a little bit with time, since she had been exposed to the smell almost on a daily basis after they got to the cabin, but it still made her sick to her stomach. The only reason she was eating fish at all, was because she couldn't take having those horrible stomach pains any more. She had managed to hide it for a long time, before eventually it got so bad that Santana noticed it. Then the other girl had demanded that she had to eat fish. So right now she was only eating it to survive and maybe also because Santana could be really scary when she was angry and Rachel was scared of what the other girl would do if she didn't eat her dinner. But right now Rachel didn't know if she felt more bad for eating a living being or for making Santana disappointed. It really wasn't Santana's fault that she couldn't stand the smell of fish.

For as long as Rachel could remember, she had always struggled with handling the smell of meat or fish being cooked. It wasn't a big problem at home, because both her parents only ate fish when she wasn't home or when they chose to eat at a restaurant. They had never brought any type of meat home with them while Rachel grew up, but that was only because her daddy's digestive system couldn't tolerate meat. As a consequence of that her dad had also stopped eating meat, because of his love for her daddy. That story had always been one of Rachel's favourite stories about her parents, because she had found it to be unbelievably romantic of her dad to do something like that for her daddy, just because he loved him.

Finn had never even considered cutting down his intake of dead animals for her. He didn't even understand why she couldn't just eat meat like the rest of the normal people in the world. At one point Rachel had almost broken up with him because of him feeding her meat without her knowledge, but she had as usually ended up forgiving him in the end. Even if she spent most of the night over the toilet throwing up, after he finally confessed that he hadn't used fake meat after all. Deep down she knew that it should have been the breaking point for their relationship, because if he really loved her he should easily have remembered that she was vegan, but she had been too afraid of no one else ever loving her and that she would eventually end up all alone, that she had taken Finn back again, but only after she strictly forbid him from never ever making her dinner ever again. Finn had just smiled at her and quickly agreed to her conditions. Rachel had a nagging feeling that it really wasn't a punishment in his eyes, it probably was more of a reward to him.

To Rachel's disappointment she had to accept that she hadn't ended up with someone willing to give up meat for her, like her dad had done for her daddy, but that was a loss she eventually got over. Even though she had given up on one of her childhood dreams, she had still stood by her principles and always refused to make Finn anything with meat or fish in it. So most of the times they had gone out or ordered in, so he could have his meat, because Finn didn't want her "health food" He was after all a fully grown man, so he needed meat to survive and he really hoped that Rachel didn't want him to die of starvation. She had caved every time and let him eat whatever he liked, but she always tried to avoid kissing him after. It just felt wrong and it tasted horrible. In the beginning she had even tried to get him to brush his teeth afterwards, but he didn't see the point in that. Because if Rachel truly loved him, then she shouldn't care about what he ate and just kiss him back. She wondered what Finn would have said, if he had seen her eating fish right now. It still felt wrong, but she knew deep down that she had to eat it to survive.

* * *

Rachel carefully looked over to Santana at the other side of the table. She was still stabbing her fish violently and pushing her food around on the plate without eating it.

"I'm sorry." Santana snapped her head up and looked at her.

"What?" Rachel sighed.

"I'm sorry for hurting your feelings." Santana scoffed and tried to protest, but Rachel quickly cut her off and continued.

"It's not your fault that I don't like fish. It's just that I have a big problem with the smell. You probably know that already, since I have been complaining about it every time you have tried to make anything with fish in it. I know that you said that you don't give a crap about me not liking it, but I do appreciate that you still try to make enough for at least two days in a row, because you secretly don't want to make me nauseous every day."

Santana quickly looked down to her plate again, she was a little embarrassed that Rachel had noticed that she actually had done that to make it easier for her, by not filling the cabin with the smell of fish every day. Rachel smiled at her reaction.

"For as long as I can remember I have had a problem when I smell meat or fish being cooked. Every time we visited my grandparents, I had to flee out of the house when grandma started to cook something that wasn't vegan. I just couldn't take the smell. Which is a little bit strange, since I actually ate fish till I was nine years old, but regardless of that I have never been able to stomach the smell." Santana looked at her in awe.

"You ate fish?" Rachel smiled.

"Yes I did. Both my parents ate fish, so naturally I was raised eating fish. So before I became a vegan, I was actually a pescatarian."

"A what?" Santana looked at Rachel confused.

"A pescatarian. It's really similar to being a vegetarian, the difference being that a pescatarian diet includes fish. Usually they also eats shellfish, but since my daddy was Jewish he was forbidden from eating shellfish because of his religion, which meant that we never ate that when I grew up."

"So why did you stop eating fish?" Santana was actually curious, which in itself was a little bit scary, she really had to be bored if she willingly asked Berry to keep talking.

"The year I turned nine, I saw a documentary about how the food industry treats animals before they get killed. After seeing that I refused to eat anything living or any products coming from them. My daddy tried to explain that we could buy products from animals that had been treated properly, that it was even guaranteed, but I still refused to eat anything like that out of solidarity to the other animals that got mistreated." Rachel pointed at a snickering Santana.

"Don't laugh! I was deadly serious about it and I never budged, so my parents eventually gave up and let me become a vegan. They even helped me do a lot of research to find out what I needed to know about being one. This is the first time since then that I have eaten fish, so please give me some time to adjust to this. It's hard for me to just give up my values, after so long abiding by them." Santana nodded.

"Yeah, okay I'll give you some slack. So how did it taste?"

"A little bit weird, but I think I'll survive." Santana smiled. She looked at Rachel's plate and saw that she had hardly eaten anything.

"You have to eat more" She quickly looked down to her own plate and whispered out.

"Do it for me?"

For some strange reason, unknown to Rachel why, that made her heart start to race. So she ended up eating everything on the plate, just to see Santana smile at her again. It was even worth feeling a little bit sick afterwards, but at least her stomach didn't bother her as much as before. The next day she ended up eating it all again, because Santana asked her to. In return Santana kept trying to make Rachel's dinners as bearable for her to eat as she could, with the limited resources she had at her disposal.

* * *

When Santana finally got sick of eating fish, she decided to try to see if she could hunt down a wild animal for them to eat instead. It really wasn't a big surprise that Rachel refused to eat any other meat, as long as she had fish to eat. Santana accepted that and really she was just happy that Rachel was finally eating something else than baked beans. She had been worried sick about Rachel not eating much at all, but at least now she was eating fish and that was all Santana could ask of her. She had no intention of forcing Rachel to eat any other meat if she didn't want to, but that didn't mean that she herself would say no to a nice piece of meat. She really missed the taste and it really wasn't the same to eat that canned piece of crap, she had found in the storage room. That's why she was planning on going hunting.

Rachel wasn't trilled about her decision, but it was probably mostly because she was afraid of Santana being killed by zombies, than her hunting and killing a living being. She might even have screamed at Santana for being fucking stupid risking her life for a little bit of meat, but she quickly calmed down when Santana explained that she wasn't going hunting inside the forest. She was just going to stay in the row boat on the lake and wait for an animal to come to quench its thirst at the lake and then she would try to shoot it while it tried to drink.

They had already seen a few wild animals come to drink at the lake, while they had been out fishing. Santana had thought about shooting one of them before, but she had been too scared that some of the zombies inside the forest might hear the shot and decide to come to the cabin. She didn't want her need for something else to eat end in them getting trapped inside the cabin, surrounded by zombies and with no chance of escaping. But after a while her need for something else to eat won over the fear of the zombies, so right now she was going hunting regardless of the danger of being discovered.

Of course Rachel started behaving like a little child again, she was pouting and telling Santana that hunting like that was cheating. Santana just smiled and asked her if she preferred that she went hunting inside the forest instead. That shut Rachel up and she reluctantly answered that she really didn't want her to do that. So it all ended in Santana shooting a black-tailed deer, to Rachel's horror and Santana's delight. Santana was fucking proud of actually managing to kill it with a hand gun and deep down she knew that even her papà would have been impressed by that kill. Rachel on the other hand was not impressed, but she still assisted Santana in carrying the dead animal inside, in case any zombies had heard the shot. They did however carry it to the storage room, since Rachel had forbidden Santana to quarter the deer in the kitchen.

Rachel tried to stay away while Santana cut up the poor deer, but her curiosity still won so she eventually peek into the storage area. She immediately regretted doing so and ran to the kitchen sink to throw up. She felt even worse when Santana later cooked herself a big deer steak over the fireplace, she didn't even touch her own dinner because she felt so sick. The whole cabin smelt of meat for a whole week, because Santana was trying to dry most of the meat into jerky so it wouldn't go to waste. She had already dried some of the fish she hadn't been able to use. Because that was the only thing she could do, since the hunting cabin had no electricity. Which meant that they had no refrigerator or freezer to keep the meat fresh.

Santana did feel a little bit bad about making Rachel sick, but she still enjoyed her dinner. Even if Rachel was giving her the evil eye the whole time she was eating it. Santana might have payed her back, by exaggerating her delight for finally getting some meat, by moaning at every bite she took. She knew she was behaving like a little brat, but she just wanted to pay Rachel back for acting like a jerk about her eating meat and fish. She had even demanded that Santana had to set aside special kitchen tools, that was only to be used for meat. So now Santana had one set of plates and cutlery that was only to be used for meat and another for fish. It even had to be washed and put separately from Rachel's plates and cutlery. Santana had been so annoyed by all of Rachel's stupid rules, that she had almost asked Rachel if she really didn't believe that the owner of the cabin hadn't used everything before to eat meat on, but in the end she decided to steer away from that conversation. So instead they were both acting like two five-year old's, trying to outdo the other.

* * *

As payback for Santana killing a deer, Rachel demanded that they had to go look for mushrooms and berries in the forest. Santana refused at first, but she eventually gave in when Rachel threatened to go alone, since she finally could walk by herself now that her ankle was getting better, but she still couldn't run and Santana knew that it would make her an easy target for the zombies. So in the end Santana reluctantly followed after Rachel.

The only reason Rachel even dared walk into that forest again, was because she was so sick of eating fish and baked beans. She simply refused to eat any of Santana's meat. She had no plan of going deep into the forest, just look for a little while and hopefully find something to eat. Because she was, to Santana's surprise, rather knowledgeable about which mushrooms you could eat and which one you couldn't. The explanation for that was simply that Rachel's daddy had always gone mushroom picking every autumn. If Rachel wasn't too busy with singing or dancing lessons, she and her dad had gone with him. Of course Santana also knew what they were looking for, since her papà had learned her everything about surviving in the wilderness. So it didn't take long before they found some edible mushrooms and berries. What they didn't count on finding was a pissed off black bear.

They had been out in the forest for a while and Santana was about to suggest that they go back, when they both heard a terrifying growl behind them. Both girls quickly turned around and found themselves face to face with a huge black bear. Oddly enough the first thought coming to Santana's mind was that black bears wasn't even supposed to be this far south, at least she didn't think so, but to be perfectly honest not long ago she didn't think zombies existed either, so at least this was actually a little less strange to her. For all Santana knew they might even have ended up walking into one of the national parks that she knew was located in California. She only knew about them because of Rachel's stupid PowerPoint presentation, on everything they needed to know about where they were going on vacation. Santana had only agreed to sit trough that torture, because Brittany really wanted to see it. But maybe that could explain why the forest they had unwillingly wandered into, never seemed to end. Santana quickly stopped thinking about that, when that big bastard stood up on its hind legs and growled at them again.

Rachel had never been so terrified in her whole life, but somehow she felt a little safer when Santana carefully pushed her behind herself to protect her from the raging bear. Santana on the other hand knew that they were both screwed. When the bear had stood up, she had accidentally spotted a little baby cub behind it. Santana had been with her papà, when he shot his fist grizzly bear in Canada and she had heard a lot of horror stories from the other hunters about people being maimed by female grizzly bears protecting their cubs. So most likely this black bear would react similar and end up attacking her and Rachel, if it felt that her cub was in danger. Judging by its behaviour, it obviously though that they were a treat.

Santana desperately tried to think of the best way to escape, but she knew that they would both be maimed by the bear before she could even get her gun out and try to shoot it. She didn't even know if she could managed to kill a bear with her hand gun, she highly doubted that she would be able to do it, especially since the bear was so close to them. So instead Santana quietly tried to back her and Rachel away from the pissed off bear, but that only made the bear drop down again. It was clear to both girls that it was about to charge after them, but to their surprise it suddenly stopped dead in its track when they all heard the cub whimper in fear.

Santana, Rachel and the mama bear all looked back to the cub and to everyone's horror they saw a group of zombies approaching the lonely cub. The black bear seemingly forgot all about Santana and Rachel and flung herself at all the zombies surrounding her cub. That was the opportunity Santana needed and she quickly grabbed Rachel hand and ran to the hunting cabin as fast as she could. She did feel a little bit bad for those two bears and she really hoped they managed to kill every single motherfucking zombie that tried to bite them. But right now the most important thing for Santana was to get her and Rachel back to the cabin alive. When they found themselves safely back inside the cabin again, laying panting on the floor. Santana grumbled out.

"You better stop complaining and just eat what I give you. I'm not going back inside that forest ever again."

Rachel just nodded, while she rubbed her sore ankle and looked down at her mushrooms and berries that had almost cost them their lives. Still Santana didn't complain when Rachel made them a delicious mushroom stew later that evening, but she wasn't going to risk her life again to get some more.

To Santana's relief it didn't look like any of the zombies had followed them back to the cabin, hopefully the black bear had ended up killed them all. However Santana suddenly found herself wondering if animals could turn too, if they got bitten. Because if they did that could mean that there might be at least two zombie bears walking around inside the forest. Santana really hoped that they didn't have to bump into that bear again to find out the answer. She secretly started to wonder if it was time for them to move on to a safer place. Wisely enough she decided not to ask Rachel what she thought about those two subjects. Still Santana was extremely careful when they finally decided to go out of the cabin again, to get some fresh air and catch some more fish to eat. Santana didn't say anything to Rachel about it, but she no longer felt that the cabin was safe enough for them to stay in and she couldn't wait for Rachel's ankle to get better.


	17. Chapter 17

******Warning for chapter 17: **Violence

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 17**

Santana's worries about zombie bears running around inside the forest was quickly forgotten, when the first snow suddenly fell one night. The two girls almost froze to death, before Santana managed to finally light a fire in the fireplace. Well maybe it was more Santana complaining that she was freezing to death and Rachel trying to hide that she was finding Santana being a wimp, when it came to a little bit of cold, extremely funny.

To be honest Santana hadn't thought a lot about the rapidly approaching winter, but to be fair she really didn't think that it would become a problem since they were so far south. But when she open the front door that morning and saw the freshly fallen snow laying outside the hunting cabin, she started to wonder once again if they had wandered further north than she had thought. Even though the snow melted the same day, Santana felt even more strongly that they had to leave the cabin. In her mind they needed to find a better place to stay or at least better isolated than the hunting cabin had proved to be after just one light snowfall.

Santana didn't know if this was just a one time thing, or if they were indeed so far north that snow would become an issue through out the winter. Because if this proved to be just the beginning, than Santana was afraid that neither of them had warm enough clothes to survive the winter. Especially if they sometimes during the winter got forced to leave the cabin, because of zombies. Which could ended up with them having to walk through the wilderness in the snow and with the clothes they had right now, they would surly end up freezing to death. So with that in mind she quickly decided that they needed to either go further south or find some warmer clothes to survive the upcoming winter.

Santana waited a few more days to make absolutely sure that Rachel's ankle was better, but then she finally decided to tell Rachel that they had to move to another place for the winter. Understandably Rachel wasn't happy about it and immediately started to list why they should stay, before she finally ended her rant when she saw that Santana wasn't listening to her.

"Why can't we just stay here?"

Santana had to look away to hide her smile. Because when Rachel finally finished her long speech, she just stood there looking at her with arms crossed and her lips forming a cute little pout. She had to remind herself that this wasn't the right time for thinking like that, so she quickly turned around with a more serious expression on her face.

"Because like I told you before we have no electricity Rachel. Sure we can survive by chopping down trees and burning them in the fireplace all winter, but that's not all we need to worry about. Just let me give you the worst imaginable scenario that we could be facing this winter." Santana started counting on her fingers.

"One: We'll run out of food. We have no guarantee for how much fish I can catch or if I can hunt down anything else and the bean cans and the rest of our food supplies are almost gone. So we could end up with no food and no chance of surviving, since we'll end up starving to death. Two: If we get lucky enough to get something to eat and enough wood to burn, we still have to consider that we're screwed if a group of zombies finds the cabin and surrounds it. If we get so lucky that they don't manage to break in, we're still left with the problem of us not getting out if they stay. If we can't get out that means that we can't get more firewood or food. That will result in us either freezing or starving to death or both. Yes, we can gather a lot of firewood to prevent us from freezing, but our food supply won't last that long, so worst case scenario we get trapped inside the cabin without food and then we die. Sure I like it here, but if a group of zombies finds this cabin, we're as good as dead. Plus I really could use a warm shower and you probably miss that too. With no electricity we'll just have to keep bathing in that lake the whole winter and if you think that it's cold now, just wait till you'll have to try to use the water if it keeps snowing. I'll guarantee you that it'll chill your bones for sure. " Rachel did miss a warm shower, but she wasn't giving in that easily.

"But what if we can't find a place with working electricity? If the whole country has been affected by this epidemic, than everything has probably fallen apart. Which means that the electricity has most likely stop working by now. I hardly think anyone is in control of anything right now, so I don't think we'll have much luck finding a place with electricity." Santana sighed.

"Yeah I thought about that, but even if we can't find a new place to stay, that has electricity, it still might be a lot better isolated than this cabin. If we find a warmer place to stay we'll have a much better chance of surviving the winter, especially if we get more snow or it gets colder. Still the best thing is probably for us to head further south again and find a house there, then we'll have no problems with the upcoming winter."

Rachel knew that Santana was right, but it didn't mean that she had to like it. She really didn't want to walk back into that forest again, just hoping that they got lucky and found a place to stay. But before she could make her concerns know, Santana answered them for her.

"So I decided that I will go out tomorrow and try to find a safe place, where we can stay for the winter." Rachel looked at her in disbelief and stuttered out.

"You - you're leaving me? Again?" Santana quickly tried to calm her down.

"Not for long, just so I can find a better place for us to stay." It looked like Rachel was about to cry, just at the thought of being left all alone yet again.

"But I can walk now and I can even run again. I can come with you." Rachel was almost pleading.

"Yeah I know, but it'll go quicker if I do this alone. I'll come back for you after I find a good place to stay and then we'll both go together." Rachel tried to fight the tears, but it was a losing battle and she could do nothing to prevent them from running down her cheeks.

"But – but what if you don't come back?" The sight of Rachel crying, almost broke Santana's heart. So she carefully cupped Rachel face, with one of her hands and dried away the few tears that had managed to escape.

"I promise to come back for you." Rachel closed her eyes and snuggled closer to Santana's hand.

"You promise?" Santana smiled.

"I promise to do everything in my power, to get back to you alive. I kept my promise last time, didn't I?" With a heart wrenching sob, Rachel threw herself into Santana's arms and refused to let go of the other girl, till she was forced to the next day.

* * *

Early the next morning Santana left the hunting cabin, after forcefully prying herself out of Rachel's embrace. She quickly walked into the forest, determined not to look back at the crying girl. Rachel on the other hand ended up just standing outside the door, for a lot longer than necessary, with tears running down her cheeks, looking at the place Santana had vanished into the forest. She eventually walked inside the cabin again, but she went straight back to bed and cried till she passed out. When she finally woke up again, the sun had set and Santana still wasn't back, which didn't help Rachel calm down. She could barely eat anything, because she was so nervous for Santana and she was constantly wondering if she was still alive. All Rachel could do was to pace back and forth in the cabin and cry in fear.

She was a emotional wreck by day two and when the third day faded away, she had lost all hope of ever seeing Santana again. She didn't even bother to get up from bed or try to eat anything, because there really was no point doing that when she had nothing more to live for. But when she finally heard a soft knocking sound on the front door, late in the evening the fourth day. She immediately jumped out of bed and ran as fast as she could to the door, almost tripping over her own feet in excitement to get there. She flung the door open and saw Santana standing outside, with her hand raised, ready to knock again.

Santana was surprised by the door opening so quickly and started scolding Rachel for being so stupid. She was going to continue lecturing her about not opening the door when it was dark outside and especially without at least checking who it was, but she was abruptly stopped when Rachel quickly yanked her inside and crashed her lips to Santana's. The whole thing took Santana by surprise and she didn't register anything, before the kiss ended. She barely noticed that Rachel was once again sobbing into her neck in relief, because she had come back alive. It actually took Santana some time to get her brain to start working again and hug Rachel back.

They just stood there for a long time, hugging each other, while Rachel kept crying. When Santana finally tried to pull out of the hug, since she desperately needed to lay down because she was so tired after walking all day, Rachel refused to let go. After yet another failed attempt, that just resulted in Rachel crying even harder, Santana gave up and just picked the crying girl up. Before she carried her to their bed and held her in her arms, till they both fell asleep.

* * *

The next day Rachel was in a much better mood and she ate like she had never seen food before. Santana was just sitting there, looking at her in awe, as the other girl shoved food into her mouth while at the same time trying to get Santana to tell her everything about their new residence. Santana just smiled at her and told her everything about the new place and how she had found it.

It had taken Santana a day to find their new place, which was actually a group of four houses, but Santana had chosen the best one of the four for them to live in. After looking at them all, she had finally decided that it was best to live in the house that seemed to be the hardest for zombies to get into, if they suddenly should get surrounded bu a group. The second day Santana had decided it was best to first secure the house they were going to be living in, before she checked the neighbor houses for zombies or humans. She had found two zombies in one of the other houses, but she had no problems killing them because they were really slow. Which surprised her a little bit, since they hadn't met any zombies that had been that slow before. Then she had gone through the three other houses and carried everything they could use to the house they would be staying in.

Santana had been planning to go back for Rachel the third day, but was unexpectedly delayed when a large group of zombies had decided to check out the neighborhood. She had been forced to stay inside and try to make no sounds and just hope that they would leave eventually. The group had luckily lost interest, when they didn't find any humans and they finally moved on during the night. Santana had quickly started the trip back to Rachel the fourth day, without meeting any zombies on her way there.

After breakfast both girls started packing their backpacks for the trip to their new house. It didn't take them long to packed the little they had and they were quickly ready to leave the cabin. However Santana had decided that they needed a whole day to make sure they reached the new house before it got dark, so they didn't start walking till the next day. At least Santana hoped they could leave the cabin, because it had suddenly started to rain heavily outside just before they went to bed.

* * *

They were both a little anxious when they woke up early the next morning, but luckily the rain had stopped falling. So they kept to their original plan to leave, after they had gotten something to eat, even if it was a little bit wet outside.

When they left the cabin, Rachel wasn't particularly trilled about having to walk into the forest again. But when they finally came out of the woods and started walking over a large grass field, she relaxed a little bit and started to look around. It didn't take long before she started enjoying the nature surrounding them, because the scenery they were waking through was quite beautiful. Rachel found that she really liked listening to the various birds sitting in the trees surrounding the field, while she looked at some of the wild flowers that had survived the snowfall, that was still blossoming amongst the high grass they were walking through. After a while she even tried to find some of the birds singing in the trees they walked by. Some times she got a glimpse of one or two of them sitting on one of the branches, where they were hiding behind some of the last yellow and red leaves that hadn't fallen yet. She even found that the water dripping from the leaves was really beautiful to look at, especially now that they were no longer inside the forest.

It really had been a nightmare walking through the woods earlier, listening to all the dripping sounds from the trees because of the heavy rainfall last night. It had made it a lot harder to listen for any possible dangers approaching them, when the falling water kept drowning out all other noises inside the forest. It had made both girls extremely jumpy and they had been constantly looking around, because of the many sounds surrounding them. They had been really relived to finally get out of the forest and start walking through the field instead. Since they now had a much better overview of their surroundings and they were no longer hindered in listen for any approaching zombies. Everything seemed so much more peaceful as they were walking through the grass field, than it had been inside that dense forest. Rachel almost felt like she was walking in a dream state.

"This could actually been pretty nice, if you think about it. Just the two of us taking a walk, while being surrounded by this beautiful nature." Rachel smiled and thought about how great that would have been if it had been true, but she quickly shook that unrealistic thought out of her head, because there were no use dreaming about something that wasn't real. She sighed in defeat.

"I really wish we didn't have to run away from those monsters any more."

"Hmm."

Rachel turned to look at Santana, who obviously wasn't paying attention to anything she had said. Instead she was looking at something higher up in one of the mountains, not far from where they were walking. So Rachel looked up too and saw a blanked of fog higher up. To her surprise it looked like it was rapidly rolling down to the valley, where they were walking. She heard Santana mumble out.

"This is bad."

Santana quickly turned to Rachel and grabbed her hand and started running, but it was too late and soon they were surrounded by a white blanket of fog. Since they suddenly couldn't see anything in front of them, Santana immediately stopped running. The fog was so thick that Rachel could barely make out the couture of Santana in front of her, so she ended up crashing into her when she abruptly stopped. The impact hurt, but she quickly forgot about the pain when she heard Santana muttering "This is bad, this is bad." over and over again.

At that moment Santana really didn't know what to do. She hadn't expected this to happen. Right now she didn't know if the best thing was to stay put and wait for the fog to lift or to just keep walking, even if they couldn't see anything in front of them. She was afraid that if they walked any further they could get lost because of the fog, but she also knew that if this lasted too long they wouldn't reach the house before it got dark. In the end she decided to keep walking, since she had no intention of sleeping outside. So she carefully tugged Rachel nearer to herself and whispered in her ear, that she had to keep quiet and stay as close to her as possible. Before she carefully started walking again, still holding Rachel's hand in her own.

They had been walking for almost an hour, the fog still wasn't letting up, when both girls suddenly stopped walking. They had heard a faint snarl coming from somewhere in front of them. Santana felt like her heart had traveled up to her throat and she desperately tried to swallow it back down, so she could breathe again, but it didn't exactly help that they almost immediately after heard another snarl coming from somewhere behind them.

Santana quickly pulled Rachel to her side and whispered in her ear to get out her gun, as quietly as she could. Then she told her that they had to stand back to back to protect each other and that they had to keep quiet, no matter what happened.

Rachel immediately followed her lead and it didn't take them long to get into position and then they just stood there waiting. For the most part it was quiet, but now and then they both heard a snarl or a growl from somewhere around them. Santana desperately wished that she could see what was going on, but when the fog finally lifted, she felt sick.

They were surrounded by a large group of zombies, probably the same group that she had seen from inside of the house they were heading to. When the zombies spotted the two girls standing there, they didn't hesitate and quickly started walking towards them. Santana immediately shouted "AIM FOR THE HEAD!" before she started shooting as many zombies as she could.

When Santana ran out of bullets, she quickly grabbed her ax, from the backpack that was now laying by her feet. She had been in need of a new weapon, since they had lost their first ax when Blaine had been killed. So she had wisely enough brought with her the ax from the hunting cabin. She quickly attacked the nearest zombie and chopped his skull open. Rachel on the other hand hadn't used all her bullets yet, since she had to aim more carefully than Santana, but when she finally ran out, she used Santana's hunting knife to defend herself against the approaching zombies.

All Santana could think about, while she fought as bravely as she could was that: This was it. They were going to die. Rachel was going to die. That thought made her fight even harder, she couldn't let Rachel die. But even though she fought as hard as she could and at the same time tried to steer Rachel away from most of the zombies, since she only had the hunting knife to defend herself with, Santana still knew that there were too many of them. They were going to lose. This time they had no chance of surviving, it was just a matter of time before one of them got bitten.

So she quickly made a decision and was about to shout for Rachel to run and save herself, but the words got stuck in her throat when she suddenly heard shouting and dogs barking nearby. Before she could find out what was happening, a series of shot was fired, hitting the rest of the zombies surrounding the two girls. Sending them all down to the ground lifeless.

Santana really thought she was dreaming. She was so shocked that she almost didn't register that they had been miraculously saved, before she finally looked up to see who had been kind enough to rescue them. To her horror she found that they were once again surrounded by a group, but this time it was by a group of men with guns pointing straight at her and Rachel.


	18. Chapter 18

******Warning for chapter 18: **Violence

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 18**

Once again the two girls found themselves at the mercy of a group of men, but even though they were surrounded and had no hope of escaping, Santana still raised her ax to try to defend herself and Rachel against them. She clearly knew that trying to fight them would be a hopeless thing to do, since they all had guns, which meant that she would have no chance of killing them all like she had managed last time. They had been lucky to get away the previous time, but apparently their luck had finally run out. Still Santana was determined that she wouldn't go down without a fight. She had promised Rachel that she would do everything she could to make sure that she didn't end up as a sex slave, so she would rather die before letting them get either of them alive. Luckily Santana didn't managed to do something stupid, before one of the guys call out.

"Lower your weapons men!"

Santana saw that the guys surrounding her clearly hesitated and kept nervously looking at her and the ax she was holding, something that pleased Santana because that meant that they were afraid of her. Finally two of them took their guns down, but the rest refused to follow their example. The guy, who had given them the order, finally got irritated by their obvious defiance and angry shouted out.

"STAND DOWN SOLDIERS!" That apparently woke them all up and they instantly listened to him, but they still reluctantly lowered their guns while keeping a watchful eye on Santana.

With no guns pointing at her any more, Santana finally dared to carefully turn around to look in the direction of the guy that had spoken, but she still refused to lower her ax. She was pretty sure that some of the guys surrounding them were just waiting for a reason to gun her down, if she let her guard down. She instantly spotted the guy that had given the order. He was clad in a military uniforms and was obviously the man in charge.

That was the moment Santana started to look closer at his men too. She quickly discovered that most of them had some sort of military gear on them, with the words U. S. Army printed on their clothes. Hopefully that was a good sign, but for all she knew those guys in front of her could have just killed a military unit and stolen their stuff to fool people into thinking that they were the good guys. Santana's attention quickly snapped back to the leader again, when he spoke directly to her.

"Lower your weapon little lady. I promise you that we won't do you anything. Don't act stupid, just lower your ax. We both know that you wouldn't last long with that toothpick you're holding, before one of my guys would put a bullet in your head."

"Well maybe I rather die, than surrender to you!" Santana snapped back. That made him laugh.

"I like you! You have guts, but there really is no need for you to die today. My name is Captain Michael Thompson and these are my men, well what's left of them anyway." He gestured around to his guys, as far as Santana had been able to count he had at least thirty guys left.

"Our unit have been protecting each other and our families since the outbreak. We have taken refuge in our old military base, not far from here. The place is surrounded by high fences, so not one of those biters have managed to get inside, we're safe there. If you girls want to, you can come with us and stay there as long as you like." When Santana kept looking at him like she didn't believe a word he was saying and that he probably was just going to kill them when she finally decided to lower her ax, he quickly added.

"You can even keep your weapons, all I ask of you is to hear me out first."

Santana didn't know what to believe, so she turned to look at Rachel. She had already lowered her hunting knife, a long time ago and she just shrugged her shoulders and whispered.

"They didn't have to save us. They could have just let us die, if that was what they really wanted, but they didn't. So maybe we could listen to what he has to offer?"

Santana bit her lower lip in concern, she didn't like it. Still Rachel was right, if it hadn't been for those guys they both would have been dead by now, but to be honest being killed wasn't the worst thing those guys could do to them. Eventually she decided to listen to Rachel, so she hesitatingly nodded her head in surrender. Thompson smiled and clapped his hands together.

"Okay men! Lets get back to base and home to our families!" He then quickly turned around and pointed at two of his guys.

"Baker! Carter! Take Campbell back to the supply truck and put him in the back!" The two men immediately started to move towards Campbell.

Santana looked over to the guy they were heading for, he was standing in the background, far away from the group. He was at the moment clutching his bleeding arm and when he saw Baker and Carter coming towards him, he quickly started backing away from the two approaching men, while begging them to kill him instead. The whole scene happening in front of her didn't exactly help Santana calm down, but she understood a little bit more when Thompson turned back to them and tried to explain.

"He got bitten by one of the biters, when we came to rescue you two. We can't risk him infecting anyone else."

In the meantime Campbell desperately tried to get away, but was quickly caught by Baker and Carter. When he didn't stop fighting and even tried to bite Baker, in a desperate attempt to flee. Carter finally decided to immobilize him by swiftly knocking him out, by slamming the butt end of his rifle straight to Campbell's head. The impact immediately rendered him motionless and the two other guys quickly picked him up and started carrying his unconscious body towards a road in the far distance.

Santana didn't understand why they couldn't just kill him right away, because that was obviously the smartest thing to do. Bringing him with them back to the base seemed like a really dumb thing to do, but maybe he had family there. They were probably just taking him back to let him say his last goodbyes, before they finally shot him. What ever the reason was, it certainly didn't make Santana feel any better about coming with them back to the base.

"Sorry about that ladies, but we have to be careful when someone gets infected." That statement made Santana curious.

"So if you get bitten you turn into a zombie?" Thompson looked a little surprised by her question, but he quickly recovered.

"Yes, if you get bitten you will get infected and turn into one of those blood hungry monsters, that unfortunately have taken over the control of this country at least for the moment. I personally don't call them zombies, I prefer to call them biters, but some of my guys still likes to call them zombies among other names."

"So they're not zombies?" Thompson sighed.

"We don't really know for sure what they are, the whole thing is rather complicated, but I can tell you a little bit of what I know while we walk back to our trucks. That is if you little ladies want to know?" He looked at them both with a questioning look.

Santana still wasn't sure if she could trust him, but he was after all standing there with them all alone, while his men had started walking ahead of him. So maybe they could trust him, but Santana still wasn't feeling too good about this situation. Thompson saw that she was hesitating.

"You don't have to come with us to the base, if you don't want to, but I think you want to hear what I have to tell you first and then make a decision when we reach the trucks." Santana looked at Rachel again and she nodded her head, so Santana turned back and pointed at him.

"Okay, but if this is a trap, I'll make sure that you die first!" Thompson just chuckled and nodded.

"Fair enough. Lets go!" He then started walking after his men.

Santana and Rachel quickly picked up their discarded backpacks, from the ground and followed after him. Thompson looked back at them, when they eventually caught up with him again.

"We'll have to walk for a while before we reach the road where our transport back to the base stands. We were on a recon mission when we got surprised by the sudden Tule fog and had to wait for it to lift again. We actually knew from previous experience that the fog was coming, because of the heavy rainfall, but we foolishly enough waited too long before we turned around. So we didn't get back in time, before we got caught in the fog. When the fog finally lifted, we were going to head straight back, but then we saw that you two little ladies were having problems. So I decided that we should help you out."

"It was really kind of you to save us. If it hadn't been for you than we would most certainly been dead by now." Thompson looked at Rachel and smiled. Rachel quickly used her elbow to nudge Santana to get her to say it too, but by accident she hit her in the ribs instead. Santana yelped in pain and glared at Rachel while she rubbed the sore spot, before she turned back to Thompson and reluctantly said.

"Yeah thanks for saving us." Thompson tried not to laugh and instead smiled back at the two of them.

"No problem little ladies. By the way, I didn't get your names."

"That's because we didn't give them to you!" Santana snapped back.

"SANTANA!" Rachel hit her in the ribs one more time and Santana almost hit her back, because that shit really hurt and this time she was sure that Rachel had done it on purposes. Rachel gave Thompson an apologetic smile.

"You have to forgive her, she's a little bit moody. My name is Rachel Barbra Berry and this charming girl is Santana Lopez." Santana gave her another glare, but Rachel just huffed at her behavior. This time Thompson couldn't stop himself from laughing at the two of them.

"Well it's really nice to meet you both. So miss Berry."

"You can call me Rachel."

"Okay, Rachel. I was wondering if I could talk to miss Lopez alone for a little while, if you wouldn't mind?" Santana was about to protest, but Rachel quickly answered him back.

"Of course, I don't mind. That's the least I can do when you saved our lives." Santana tried to protest again, but was stopped by Thompson shouting.

"GRIMES GET BACK HERE!" One of his guys immediately turned around and sprinted back to them.

"What can I do for you Sir?" Thompson pointed to Rachel.

"I want you to keep this little lady safe while I talk to miss Lopez."

"Affirmative Captain, no problem." He quickly gestured for Rachel to follow him. Santana was about to protest for the third time, but forgot all about it when Rachel quickly leaned in and kissed her cheek before whispering "I'll be right back, don't worry." Then she hurried after Grimes.

* * *

At first Santana didn't hear anything Thompson was telling her, because she was too busy glaring at that idiot Grimes instead. It looked like he was flirting with Rachel and all Santana wanted to do was to march over there and give that Finn lookalike, a piece of her mind about staying away from Rachel. She was so consumed with thinking of ways to kill him, that she didn't register that Thompson wasn't talking anymore. He had stopped when he noticed that Santana was looking at Rachel, instead of listening to him. So he cleared his throat to get Santana's attention. Santana quickly turned around and looked at him.

"Little lady! It's really disrespectful to ignore someone who is talking to you." Santana was about to say something, but he just waved her off and pointed at Grimes.

"Grimes is a good guy, he's my right hand man. I trust him with my own life. You can stop worrying about him stealing your girl. He's a happily married man and have two kids back at the base, so he's not after your girl." That made Santana react.

"She's NOT my girl! I'm just looking after her, she's my best friend!" Thompson laughed.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that and I can guarantee you that you'll lose her to one of my guys. Most of them are single and they would love to get themselves a girl like her." Santana tried to seem indifferent, but her voice still wavered a little bit when she spoke.

"Would – would they do anything to get her?" Thompson noticed how frightened Santana suddenly looked.

"What? You mean anything illegal?" Santana nodded her head.

"No! They know that such behavior is forbidden and if they tried anything like that, I would personally feed them to the zombies myself. I do not allow my men to behave like animals, if they do they'll have to deal with me. They all know that it wouldn't be worth it, because if anyone tries to cross me, they will regret it. Still I can guarantee you that we're good men. I myself have been married for twenty years and have four beautiful kids and the worlds greatest wife back at the base. So I wouldn't let anything happen to you two, if you decide to come with us. You would have my word on that. I would however still advice you to keep an eye on your girl, especially if you don't want to lose her to one of my guys." Santana was about to protest again, but he quickly waved her off and continued.

"But I will tell them to back off your girl, if you decide to join my unit."

"WHAT!" Santana immediately stopped walking and looked at him in disbelief.

"You want me to join your army?!"

"Yes I do. This is why I wanted to talk to you alone. I didn't think you wanted your girl to hear what I'm about to tell you. You see the thing is that we used to be a regular army, prepared to help our country and our fellow country men, but then the whole world changed and so did we. Our goal now is to keep ourselves and our own family alive and safe, but that's it. We stopped saving other people a long time ago. If you're not family, you're not worth saving."

"But-" Santana tried to say, before Thompson cut her off again.

"Yes, we saved you two and usually I wouldn't have wasted one bullet on that, but I haven't seen many people as talent with a weapon as you are miss Lopez." He looked Santana straight in the eye.

"That's the only reason I let my men save you two. I need your skills in my army Lopez. You never wasted a shot. You never missed a single target. You would probably have survived, if your girl had been as good as you. It was obvious that you had learned her a trick or two about how to use a gun, but she still missed some of her targets. Like I said I had no plan of saving you two, but when I saw how good you were with that gun, I knew that I needed you in my unit. You're probably a better shot than all of my men and what you can do with an ax in close combat is really impressing. Even though you clearly endangered your own life, just to keep your girl safe. Still you didn't even get bitten. That is qualities I need in my army and I desperately need better men in my unit. Unfortunately I lost all of my best men in the outbreak, when they all turned. Now all I'm left with is a bunch of idiots, like Campbell. How do you get bitten when you have a gun with ammo? That's just plain stupidity!" He looked like he was furious with Campbell for being so dumb. He shook his head and started walking again.

It took Santana a little while before she registered that he had left, she was still in shock over the fact that he wanted her to join his unit. So when she finally was able to think again, she quickly ran after him. The second she caught up with him again and tried to say something, he immediately cut her off and started talking again.

"So you have a decision to make miss Lopez. Either you join my army and come back with us to the base, where I promise to keep you and your girl safe. Or you two try to survive on your own, without my protection." He stopped again and Santana could see that he was looking at his guys, who were waiting for him by their trucks, before he turned around.

"You should probably know that if you decide to leave and continue on your own, that every house around here have been cleaned out by my unit. We go around and gather everything that can be useful and bring it back with us to the base. That means that there is no food around here for miles."

Santana was shocked by that information, because that changed everything. If what he was saying was true, than they had also taken all the supplies she had found and stored in the house, that they had planned to stay in for the upcoming winter. Which meant that they had no more food, than they were carrying in their backpacks right now. They would be forced to go back to the hunting cabin again and live there for the rest of the winter. Santana still didn't know if that was a good option, but it was clearly the only option left. She tried to say something, but she couldn't get out a sound. Thompson studied her expectantly. After some time Santana's shoulders slumped down in defeat and she looked up at him.

"I guess you leave me no other choice?" Thompson gave her a sad smile.

"No, not really." Santana sighed.

"Okay, but I need to talk to Rachel first."

"Of course, but if I were you I would probably leave out the worst parts." Santana nodded.

They both walked over to the group, that was waiting for them and Santana immediately grabbed Rachel and yanked her away from Grimes. She still didn't trust that jerk. Rachel tried to protest and scolded Santana for unnecessarily manhandling her, but she quickly calmed down when Santana told her that they had no other choice than to go back with the group to their base. It actually looked like Rachel was relived that they would be getting back to civilization. Santana didn't know why, but it hurt a little bit that Rachel seemed so eager to meet other people again. She didn't get time to dwell on it, because Thompson shouted to her.

"Lopez are you and your girl coming with us?! It's getting dark and we need to head back to the base as quickly as possible!" Santana looked at Rachel one more time, before she shouted back.

"Yeah, we're coming!"

When they got back to Thompson, he asked them to join him in his private Humvee, so he could explain to them what he knew about the outbreak. On their way back to the base, he started to tell them what had happened to his unit.

* * *

At the start of the outbreak Thompson's army had been ordered to help quarantine and evacuate people, but then suddenly half of his unit had turned into those blood eating things. He and the rest of his men had quickly decided to save their own families and take refuge in their military base to try to survive the outbreak. They had all been living there since and they had only gone outside the base to get supplies for themselves and their families.

He then told them that they believed that the outbreak had been caused by an extremely aggressive virus. If you got bitten you would turn sooner or later, depending on how hard your immune system was fighting the virus, before it eventually gave up. There were no cure for the virus, as far as they knew, but they hadn't heard anything from anyone after the outbreak had taken over the whole country. So they weren't very optimistic about a possible cure.

Thompson suspected that the reason half of his unit had turned was that they had been given a new vaccine, that the government had told them was a flu shot, since they were going to get shipped out to Iraq soon. The rest of his unit hadn't been cleared for duty yet, since they lacked the necessary experience to get sent overseas. So they hadn't been given the vaccine, because it was apparently really expensive to distribute. So if the men in charge of the vaccine program didn't know for sure that a soldier was going to get shipped out, they didn't want to spend money on them and refused to give them the vaccine. Which luckily enough had saved Thompson and the other half of his unit from turning too.

Thompson hadn't taken the flu shot himself, because he had been forced to stay back in the base to get the rest of his unit ready to deploy later. One of his fellow Captains, who also was his best friend, was going to be leading the rest of the unit in Iraq till Thompson could go there himself. So when everyone in his unit, that was going to Iraq, turned Thompson had been forced to kill his best friend to survive. The rest of the surviving unit had also been forced to kill some of their best friends to get away, still not all of the survivors had made it back to the base that day.

Thompson looked like he was on the verge of crying, after that story and Santana saw that the driver of the Humvee had tears running down his cheeks. Thompson cleared his throat, before he looked out of the front passenger window and told the two girls that he had given them enough information for today. After that the car fell into a heavy silence and no one spoke before they finally reached the military base.


	19. Chapter 19

******Warning for chapter 19: **Violence

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 19**

Santana made sure she got a good look at the layout of the military base, as they were driving in through the fenced gates. The base itself was surrounded by high fences, with barbwire at the top and there were guarded watchtowers spread all around the base. So at first sight the security seemed good. Santana felt a little bit calmer after seeing all the security measures the base had to offer, it really looked like the two of them would be safe inside the base, well at least safe from zombie.

When Santana and Rachel stepped out of the Humvee, Thompson asked them to wait by the car. Before he walked over to the truck in front of them, where he whispered something to Grimes. Santana really hoped that they hadn't made the wrong decision when they decided to trust Thompson, because right now they were pretty much trapped inside the base and had no chance of escaping, if this turned out to be a setup. The conversation didn't last for long, before Grimes nodded his head in understanding and ran to the nearest building. Santana was a little bit on edge, till he finally came back out again, but this time he wasn't alone, he had a woman by his side. The two of them walked up to Thompson and he talked with the woman for a while, before she finally looked over to where Santana and Rachel were standing. It didn't look like she was overly happy about their presence inside the base, but she obviously didn't protest Thompson's decision to bring two strangers into their safe haven, even though she clearly wanted to. Instead she reluctantly nodded her head and they both walked over to where the two girls were standing.

"Let me introduce you to Mrs. Grimes." Thompson gestured to the woman beside him, before he pointed at the two girls.

"This is ms. Lopez and ms. Berry." Both girls shook hands with the woman, who was obviously Mr. Grimes wife.

"Mrs. Grimes is going to find you a place to sleep for the night and something to eat. You will get a shower too, but unfortunately we have to ration the water for the moment, so it has to be a quick one." He saw Santana raising a questioning eye brow, so he quickly added.

"I tell you about it tomorrow miss Lopez. We do have some things to discuss, before you receive your uniform."

Rachel looked really confused by his last statement and was about to say something, but quickly stopped when Santana carefully shook her head and mouthed "Later."

"Now if you could follow after Mrs. Grimes, then she will give you all the help you need. Goodnight little ladies." He tipped his hat, before he walked after the rest of his men into a building with a sign reading Mess Hall.

"Okay girls if you would be so kind to follow me." Mrs. Grimes looked like she wanted to show them the way out of the base, not where they would be staying for the night.

Santana and Rachel obediently followed after her into one of the bigger looking buildings they had seen so far. Where she lead them to a big hall, which had a lot of bunk beds spread across the whole room. Most of them were already occupied by other people, who immediately looking up at the two girls in surprise and worry. All the staring made Santana feel really uncomfortable, but luckily for her Mrs. Grimes quickly escorted them to an unoccupied bunk bed in the far corner of the room, away from most of the curious people.

"This is where you will be sleeping for the night. If you want to get a quick shower and something to eat, then please come with me." She quickly turned around again and headed for the door, without waiting for the two girls.

Santana and Rachel both hurried to grab some clean clothes from their backpacks and sprinted after Mrs. Grimes, who had already exited the hall and was now impatiently waited for them outside the sleeping hall's main door. She started talking the second the three of them began walking towards the showers.

"I couldn't tell you this while we were in the presence of those other people, but tomorrow you two will get a room for yourselves, if Captain Thompson makes miss Lopez a part of his army. Everyone that is in his unit and their family gets a room for themselves. If you're not in the unit or family, you'll have to sleep in the main hall with the rest of the people living in this base, like you have to do tonight. Most people sleeping in there were workers at the base before the outbreak happened. Thompson let them stay inside the base after the outbreak, in exchange for them helping us with different jobs that needs to be done. Most of them just do what they did before, like cooking, cleaning, maintenance and other jobs that can help us survive this outbreak. No one can stay here without contributing something back."

"So if I don't join Thompson's unit, we'll have to sleep in there for however long we plan to stay?" Just the thought of having to stay with all those nosy people, with no privacy at all, for a whole winter was already starting to freak Santana out.

"Yes miss Lopez, that's correct. You'll only get special treatment in this place, if you risk your life to keep the rest of us alive and out of danger."

Rachel was completely shocked by the whole conversation between Mrs. Grimes and Santana. She had known that something was wrong, the moment Santana had dragged her away to tell her that they had to go with Thompson back to his base. Still she had been too happy, that they would finally be safe again, to think anything about it. But when Thompson had told Santana about her uniform, she hadn't been able to think about anything else. Ever since then she had been dreading that what she feared was happening, was going to become a reality and by the sound of this conversation, she probably already knew that she was unfortunately right in her assumptions.

She quickly glanced at Santana, biting her bottom lip in worry, but she didn't say anything. She was starting to fear that she already knew what Santana had agreed to do for Thompson, in exchange for them being able to stay at the base. She desperately needed to talk to Santana, but she didn't want to talk about it while Mrs. Grimes was there. Rachel almost crashed into said woman, when she suddenly stopped and pointed into a dark room.

"The shower is right in there. You'll get five minutes. When the times up, I'll turn the water off, even if you're not finished. So you better use your time well."

Mrs. Grimes turned on the lights, before opened up a locked cabinet with a key that she had hanging around her neck. Inside the cabinet was an emergency water shut-off valve.

"You'll have to share a shower, since we have to ration water right now."

Santana almost choked when she heard the first part and it didn't look like Rachel was extremely thrilled by the idea either. Santana was about to protest, but Mrs. Grimes beat her to it.

"I know that this isn't ideal, but it's the only way you'll get to take a shower, so it's up to you if you want to."

It had been over a month since Rachel had her last shower, she had only been able to bathe in the lake beside the hunting cabin and the water had usually been rather cold. So she really missed warm water. Santana on the other hand had of course taken one or two or maybe ten showers, when she had found out that the house they were supposed to stay in for the winter, still had electricity. So even if Santana was reluctant, Rachel didn't have to think about it for a second more. Not that it should be a hard decision to make for either of them, since they were both covered in zombie gunk.

So Rachel quickly took a hold of Santana and dragged her inside to the locker room, where she immediately started stripping. Santana had to quickly turn away and swallow her anxiousness, before she reluctantly started to take off her own clothes and quietly mumbled under her breath "This isn't weird at all." Suddenly Mrs. Grimes shouted out.

"Are you ready?"

Rachel took a hold of Santana one more time and quickly dragged her into the shower, so they were both stand under the only shower in the room. Before she shouted back "Yes we're ready!"

Then the water came streaming down, at first it was freezing cold, but it quickly got warmer and Santana relaxed a little bit, till Rachel ruined it by saying.

"Turn around so I can help fix your hair."

Santana opened her eyes to look at Rachel and when she saw a very naked Berry in front of her, she was too shocked to think about anything else and just let Rachel turn her around. She immediately panicked when Rachel started soaping up her hair and back side. She almost let out a squeak when Rachel by accident touched her butt, before she quickly stopped and asked Santana to do the same to her.

All Santana could do was to comply, while she chanted a mantra of "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" over and over again, inside her head. The hardest part was when she reached Rachel's firm ass and she had never been so happy hearing Mrs. Grimes shouting out "One minute left ladies!" Because if she hadn't, Santana was sure she wouldn't have resisted the temptation to touch where she really shouldn't be.

The warning made Rachel speed up and they both quickly rinsed their hair. They had barely finished, when the water was turned off. Both girls quietly exited the shower, to get to their clean clothes. Santana was looking forward to getting some new clothes on, that didn't have zombie blood splattered all over them, but before they could get there Mrs. Grimes quickly blocked their way.

"I hope you understand that what I have to do now, is just a precaution to make sure that neither of you have been infected. I'm not going to do you anything, all I need is to make sure that you haven't been bitten by those hideous things wandering outside. So if you could be so kind as to cooperate, then I will not be forced to get someone to help me. All you have to do is raise your arms above your head and slowly turn around, so I can inspect your bodies for possible bites."

Santana was a little bit shocked by the whole thing and didn't move, but Rachel obediently raised her hands and slowly started spinning around in a circle. All Santana could do was to stare transfixed at her glistening naked body and try to will herself out of picturing what she could do if she only reached her hand out and- Her fantasy was rudely interrupted by Mrs. Grimes telling her that it was her turn. Rachel had already started to get dressed, something Santana hadn't noticed at all. So she quickly followed the instructions, before she hurried to get her own clothes, when she finally got the all clear from Mrs. Grimes. Santana sighed in relief when they once again were fully clothed and were walking to the kitchen to get something to eat.

While they walked there Mrs. Grimes told them that they also had to ration food, but that Santana would get bigger portions and better food, if she was accepted by Thompson tomorrow. The soldiers always got the best food, since they risked their lives to keep everyone safe. However when it came to this, their family didn't get the same treatment, they had to settle for the same food as the rest of the people in the base. Rachel was just quietly listening to what Mrs. Grimes was telling them. She still didn't say anything, but the more she heard, the more she understood that her fear about Santana was becoming a reality.

When Mrs. Grimes had reheated the leftover food, from dinner earlier that day and placed it in front of the two girls, Santana quickly switched her vegetables with Rachel's meat, so she didn't have to eat it. Mrs. Grimes just watched the whole thing in wonder, but she didn't comment on it. Rachel just smiled up at Santana, who smiled back at her, before she turned back to finish her own dinner. It really wasn't the best meal they had eaten, but it was good enough.

After finishing the sparse meal they were given, Mrs. Grimes lead them back to the sleeping hall. She told Santana that she would come back to get her the next day, so she could bring her to see Thompson. Before she left she told them that curfew was at 22 hundred and that all lights was being turned out at 23 hundred. She assured them that it wasn't because they lacked electricity, since Thompson and his men had managed to take over and secure the local power plant. In fact they had five men stationed there at all times, to secure their energy supply. The reason they needed to have strict rules about this, was that if everyone complied by them, then it was more likely that everyone would survive if they later would be forced to use the base's emergency energy generators. They all needed to learn that they couldn't just waste what they had, everything needed to be rationed just in case. Because they really didn't know for sure if it would get better or worse in the future. Therefore they had a set of rules, that everyone inside the base had to abide by. Which Mrs. Grimes quickly pointed out that the two girls also had to do, if they wanted to live inside the base. She would apparently talk Rachel through the whole list tomorrow, when Santana was having her meeting with Thompson. Mrs. Grimes then bid them goodnight and left them standing beside their bunk bed. Santana looked at the beds.

"You can have the bottom one, if you like. I can take the top bunk." She looked at Rachel, who was biting her bottom lip again. "What?"

Rachel hesitated. She desperately wanted to talk to Santana, about what she feared the other girl had agreed to do for Thompson. Just to make sure the two of them could live safely inside the base, but she was too afraid to ask. Because if Santana told her that it was true, she really didn't know what to do or how she would react. This was probably not the ideal place to start a fight.

Before she could make up her mind, someone shouted "Ten minuets till lights out!" Everyone inside the sleeping hall immediately finished what they were doing and got into their beds. Rachel sighed and looked back at Santana. She was still staring at her, so Rachel looked down and whispered. "I don't want to sleep alone tonight."

Santana barely heard her plea. She swallowed anxiously and quickly looked around the sleeping hall, but nobody was paying them any attention, most of them were apparently already asleep. She sighed and reluctantly nodded her head. "Okay."

Rachel light up and quickly hugged her, before she got into the bottom bunk and let Santana spoon her from behind. Santana really had no other choice, since the bed was so narrow, but Rachel didn't seem to mind. She just grabbed Santana's hand and draped it over her waist and sighed in contentment, before she quickly drifted off to sleep after the draining day she had been through.

Santana wasn't that lucky. She kept thinking about everything that had happened to them and how close she had been to losing her own life and Rachel's. They really had been lucky that Thompson had decided to save them and Santana felt like she owed him her life, but she still had this nagging feeling that something wasn't right. She was almost a hundred percent sure, that Thompson hadn't told them everything he knew about the outbreak. So she was determined to find out what he was hiding from them, when she talked to him the next day. Then she started worrying about what she would be forced to do for Thompson, when she joined his army, but after a while of pondering the worst case scenarios. Her thoughts drifted to what Rachel's naked body had looked like and what it had made her feel, but she quickly shook the image of Rachel out of her head and told herself too get a grip. Before she finally blamed it on the lack of sex she was having. She finally drifted off to sleep, dreaming about zombies eating Rachel alive, while she had to watch. Not being able to help her, since Carter and Baker were holding her back and laughing at her, because she was desperately trying to get out of their grip to save Rachel.

* * *

Santana woke up the next day in a terrible mood and wisely enough Rachel tried to not aggravate her more than necessary, after Santana snapped at her the first time she fearfully tried to ask what Thompson and Mrs. Grimes had meant yesterday. So instead she kept quiet till Mrs. Grimes came to get Santana, for her meeting with Thompson. Then she climbed back into bed and cried a little bit, not knowing why Santana was mad at her.

Santana wasn't doing much better than Rachel. All she wanted to do was to go back and maybe even apologize for shouting at Rachel. It had almost crushed her heart when she had snapped at her, because she had seen the instant hurt in Rachel's eyes, before she had bit her bottom lip to obviously prevent herself from crying. She had then ducked her head down and just turned away from Santana and hadn't spoken to her since, not even when she left. That really didn't help on Santana's already bad mood, but she knew that she had no other choice than to go to this meeting, if she wanted to keep herself and Rachel safely inside the base.

As Santana was occupied thinking about Rachel, Mrs. Grimes led her to one of the better looking buildings on the base, where apparently Thompson had his office. He was sitting behind his desk, looking out of the window, when they walked in. He smiled at both of them.

"Thank you Helen." Mrs. Grimes nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her. Santana guessed that she was probably going back to the sleeping hall to talk with Rachel, about all the rules they had to learn.

"Take a seat." Thompson gestured to a chair in front of his desk. Santana obediently sat down.

"Did you sleep well?" Santana shrugged her shoulders. Thompson laughed.

"Probably not. Those bunk beds aren't exactly comfortable, but I did that to show you how it will be for you and your girl if you don't join my army."

"She's NOT my girl and I said yesterday that I would join."

Thompson was still amused that the stubborn girl in front of him, was still denying something that was so obviously true. In his opinion not many people would have been willing to sacrifice themselves, to try to save someone who was just a friend. He wondered if she really could be that blind, but either way it was still highly entertaining to tease her about it. Because she reacted so strongly, so he really enjoy making her irritated. He would probably keep teasing her about it later, but right now they had more important things to talk about.

"Yes you did, but I haven't told you everything yet. I want you to make this decision having all the facts, both the good and the bad. Like how you get privileges like a private room, better food, longer showers." That made Santana look up. She was still curious to why they had to ration the water.

"Yes you'll get a longer shower. Right now we have a problem with our water supply being low, because one of our wells got contaminated by one of those biters, because some of my men screwed up. Their obviously lacking the necessary brain capacity to do anything right, but don't worry we are working on digging a new well. We're hoping that we don't have to ration the water as much, after the new well is finished." Santana nodded. Well at least that explained the water problem.

"So now I have to tell you the bad side of being in my unit."

Santana didn't show it, but she was secretly freaking out. She was really worried about what he was going to tell her next.

"If you join, you'll have to come with us on our salvaging missions. We drive out to get all necessary supplies to survive like food, guns, ammo, gas, medicine, clothes and everything else we need to make sure that our families survives, but as you saw it's not without risks. Ten of my men have already died out in the field so far, those trips can at times be very dangerous. That's why you need to take that into account too, before you decide." Santana was about to say something, but Thompson stopped her.

"Now I have to tell you some things I left out last night. I thought that you maybe didn't want your girl to hear this."

Santana didn't bother to protest this time, about the fact that Rachel wasn't her girl. She had a feeling that Thompson enjoyed teasing her about it, so she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of getting to her. But he still laughed at her annoyed facial expression, as if he knew what she was thinking. Then he suddenly got more serious and stood up from his chair, before he walked towards the window and looked out at the base, while he started explaining to Santana what he knew about the breakout.

"Before we lost all communication with the rest of the world, we heard a lot of rumors about what they thought had caused the outbreak. Two of the most popular conspiracy theories were that the virus was inside both the swine flu vaccine the public got and the new vaccine the military was given." He looked back at Santana.

"They told everyone in the military that they were given the same vaccine as the public, but I know for a fact that it's a lie, because those two vaccines weren't even made by the same pharmaceutical company or given for the same purpose. The military was given this new vaccine because it was supposed to make the soldiers stronger, at least that's what they thought it would do. This was of course just an experiment to see if they were right and at first it seemed like it actually worked. Those men in my unit that had been given the vaccine was starting to get faster and stronger, than those that hadn't gotten the shot. One of my men even survived a fall that should have broken several bones in his body, maybe even killed him, but he came out of the accident with only some small bruises and scrapes. My fellow Captain even told me that he had never felt so good in his whole life, as he did after he got that vaccine, but that only lasted till they all got a terrible fever. After that it didn't take long before they all, turned into those blood hungry monsters." Thompson took a minute to collect himself before continuing.

"We also heard a rumor that they hadn't given the new vaccine to the army unit that was assigned to protect our president, but obviously they weren't medical guinea pigs like us. The nation was told that they apparently had managed to evacuate the president and his men to a secure location. Some people even claimed that they believed he had been evacuated into Cheyenne Mountain, where he would be kept safely away from anyone infected. Another rumor stated that they had taken him to an unknown city, that the government had secured somewhere up in North America, because it hadn't been as badly attacked as all the other major cities had been. The rumor was that they had started to build up a barricade around this city, so nobody could get in. The hope was to keep anyone that was sick or had turned out of the city, so they wouldn't contaminate anyone living behind the city walls." Santana was at this point almost sitting at the edge of her seat.

"Which city did they say it was?" Thompson scratched his head.

"Well we never got the answer, because we lost communication before we could get it confirmed. They probably didn't want the public to travel up there and risk exposing the president to more sick people, but the unofficial rumor was that it was the city of Minneapolis up in Minnesota. I don't know if they were more reluctant to get the vaccine or if most of them had just fled the city before it got too bad, but apparently Minneapolis wasn't that badly attacked. So the presidents army could quickly get ride of those who had turned. Before they started securing the city, by building up a barrier, so no one couldn't get in. They were apparently going to evacuate the president and the government there too, when it got safe enough.

"So why haven't you tried to go there?"

"Well we're not sure if it's the right city, it could be any city for all we know. Still I have to admit that I did want to know if it was true, so I sent two of my men to find out, but they have been gone for over a month now. So I believe that their probably dead or that they found out that it was the wrong city and didn't want to risk their lives trying to come back here again. I only sent them in the first place, because they had no family here that would miss them if they died, but that also meant that they had no good reason to come back to us. Therefore they might have just decided to stay somewhere else to survive the breakout. In the end everyone here just gave up on the dream of a safe place, that we hopefully could go to. Instead we all decided that we should only concentrate on surviving here by ourselves, not hope for the government to fix this mess. That's also the main reason why we are trying to find a cure for this despicable decease." Santana didn't like where this was going, but she tried to hide her concern and kept listening.

"We have three military researchers in this base. Their not experts on this type of things, but they have been studying the zombies we have brought back with us to the base." At this Santana couldn't stop herself from looking at him in horror. Thompson obviously saw how shocked she was.

"There's nothing to be afraid of. The research lab is far away from the living area and it's fenced in, in case of anything going wrong. You have to remember that we're taking care of our families here and I wouldn't do anything that would compromise their safety."

Santana didn't find that very reassuring. Because in her eyes he had already endangered the people living inside the base, by bringing zombies in there in the first place, but she tried to pretend that she believed him. She hoped her voice didn't tremble too much when she finally spoke.

"So what have you found out?" It looked like Thompson bought it and he immediately started explaining what they had discovered so far.

"Well our researchers have found out that the virus changes the whole body before it finally attacks the brain, killing it till only one area is still alive. They believe that this area of the brain makes humans behave like blood craving monsters. Sadly enough if a human has been turned into a biter, then there's no chance of ever turning them back, since the virus has decreased the hosts brain function to a bare minimum. You can almost say that their as good as dead, because their nearly completely brain-dead, except for the part that gives them an overwhelming need for blood. However there's also good news. If they don't get any blood, they will eventually get weaker and slower. We have even found out that they will eventually die, if their system doesn't get more blood before it's too late. Though unfortunately for us we also found out that it greatly varies, from host to host, how fast the virus drains their bodies. Some will only last a week, but others seems like they might even last for over a month, maybe even longer. We're still monitoring some of our test subjects as we speak, so they might still live a long time before we get the answers we're looking for."

Santana didn't know if she should be horrified or really intrigued by what Thompson was telling her, but she still wasn't happy that they were keeping zombies inside the base. Thompson just kept talking, not noticing Santana's obvious distress over the whole situation.

"When one of our guys died from the injuries he got from being attacked by a group of biters, we brought him back to see if he would turn into one of those monsters, but he didn't. That's how we found out that their not really zombies, as my men likes to call them. Because if you believe our findings, their not actually living dead. The thing is if you die from your injuries before the virus takes over your body, you just die and that's it. So it seems like those monsters are still alive, something we believe is confirmed by the fact that they can die, if they don't get any blood. That means that they need to feed to stay alive. We also know that the people who got the virus through the vaccine, never died before they turned. It's the same thing with people who gets bitten and manages to get away alive, they never died before they turned either. The only sign that something was wrong with them was that they got a high fever and then they suddenly turned into those monsters. So everyone that gets bitten and manages to survive, will eventually get a high fever. That's the last sign that their bodies natural immune system, which is trying to fight the virus to kill it, is giving up and letting the virus finally take over since it's just too strong. The virus will then kill most of the brain and take over the whole body. In the end all that's left is a blood eating monster. The only difference we found between those who got infected by the vaccine and those who gets infected by a bite, is that it takes only a few hours or a few days before the virus takes over the body if you get bitten. But it took up to several weeks before the virus took over the bodies of those that got the virus through the vaccine." Thompson stood up and walked over to a monitor hanging on the wall and clicked the power on, before taking the remote and sitting back down.

"The really scary part is that the virus makes the carrier stronger than regular humans. That's why you have to shoot them in the head, that's the only thing that will kill them. Because if you shot them anywhere else, the virus quickly repairs the body and closes the wound. The virus tries to prevent the host body from losing a large amount of blood." He clicked a button so the start menu appeared and then started a video labeled "Experiment 12" and let it play while he kept talking.

"We shot one of our test subject in the arm and to our horror the body pushed out the bullet and repaired the bullet hole, but we have also seen cases where the body encase the bullet inside the host and just closes the wound."

Santana saw two men in lab coats shoot a bullet into the zombie's arm and not long after, to her surprise, it got pushed out of the bullet hole and the hole closed up by itself. Thompson quickly clicked to another video marked "Experiment 23"

"If you cut a limb off one of the biters, the virus will instantly stop the bleeding, so the host won't die of lack of blood. Luckily for us they won't grow back the severed limb, just repair the wound, but it's extremely difficult to cut the limb off in the first place. It seems like their body has become almost impossible to penetrate with weapons. When we dissected one of them we found out that the virus had made the body grow a thick skull like barrier around the internal organs, so bullets wouldn't be able to reach them. The only vulnerable place seems to be their head and that's almost the only thing that will kill them. It's a mystery to us why the brain isn't as protected as the other parts, but we're just happy that it isn't or else we would all be dead by now."

To her horror Santana could now see the two guys with a chainsaw trying to hack of a young girls arm. There was blood everywhere and it looked like a scene from a gruesome horror movie or a really disturbing nightmare. It was obviously a zombie they were experimenting on, but she still looked so much like a human, that it was really painful for Santana to watch. The only thing telling her that it actually wasn't a human, was the soulless eyes staring back at her from the screen. Well that and the fact that the girl didn't scream out in pain, even though she was awake, while the two guys clumsily tried to hacked off her arm.

The sight itself almost made Santana throw up, the little bit she had managed to force herself to eat at breakfast, but at the same time she also found it disturbingly fascinating to watch. Because the two guys on the screen had a really hard time cutting trough the arm, it almost looked like they were cutting into metal. Thompson actually fast forward for a while, before they finally succeeded in cutting her arm off. It didn't take the virus long before it had completely closed the open wound.

Thompson thankfully decided to click to another video labeled "Experiment 30" but that was an even worse sight were the same girl was being dissected by the two "scientists" while still apparently being alive. They had a hard time trying to open her chest up and had to switch to using a chainsaw again. Santana started to feel a little bit queasy by the sight of all the blood that was flying everywhere, but in the end, after even more fast forwarding, they finally managed to break through the tick bone structure that was protecting the zombies organs.

Even though Santana knew that she herself wasn't an expert on the inside of a humans body, she was still pretty sure that whatever she was looking at right now, wasn't how a normal human's inside and organs were supposed to look like. She wanted to ask Thompson about it, but he just quickly changed the video till "Experiment 41" instead of making any comment about the strange sight.

"We also found out that it's a lot easier to kill one of the them, when they haven't eaten in a while. Their bodies isn't as hard to cut through and they are a lot weaker, but if they have eaten recently you have to be extremely careful. They get even harder to kill, because they get a lot faster and stronger with fresh blood in their system. It seems like the virus gets stronger the more fresh blood it gets. If the virus doesn't get blood, it will start to feed off the host's body instead and that luckily makes the biters weaker. If they don't get any type of blood soon, the virus will eventually drain the host's body till it dies because of the lack of blood in its system."

Santana curiously looked at some of the experiments, that Thompson rapidly clicked trough. This time the two guys were experimenting on people, that looked more like Santana thought zombies would look, they all looked like they were more dead than alive. As Thompson had said they seemed a lot weaker than the other zombies, that they had done experiments on earlier. Thompson kept on talking while he flickered trough most of the experiments. What Santana saw confirmed what he had been telling her.

"We also found out that it doesn't matter if it's human blood or if it's animal blood. They just need blood to survive. We have seen on some of our missions, that those monsters will attack any living being if they're given the chance. My unit has found a lot of dead animals on our trips, that has obviously been killed and gutted open and apparently eaten by biters. Fortunately for us we hadn't come across any animals that had turned, because we all foolishly believed that they would just die of the damages they were inflicted with by the biters." He quickly clicked to "Experiment 52."

"But then one of our guard dogs, that we used out in the fields, got bitten. The thing is we always bring with us at least two dogs on our missions. We started doing that after we found out that animals, well at least dogs, have a good sense of detecting approaching biters or humans that have been infected. We don't know why, but we suspect that the virus causes the host to emit a certain smell that dogs react to and apparently they instinctively know that it means danger. It's important for us to have them with us, since we can't always detect which humans that has been infected." Thompson looked over at Santana.

"That's probably the only reasons I dared to bring you two back to the base, because none of our dogs barked at you. As you probably will see later, when you come with us, our dogs will also help us with biters that looks like humans. Those biters could easily fool us, when they are far away, but it never fools the dogs. We do have to make our dogs wear muzzles to prevent them from barking, because we really don't want them to give up our position, when we're out in the field. You never know if there's any biters close by and we certainly like to stay away from them if we can. We do take the muzzles off if we need them to attack or when we're back at the base. Because it's one of the best ways to detect biters, long before they actually reaches the base. But as I said unfortunately one of our dogs got bitten, because he tried to save his owner. Since we needed to know if animals could turn too, we brought him back with us to check and as you can see the virus also turned him." Santana looked in horror as the cute dog transformed into a raving mad monster on the screen, suddenly her fear of a zombie bear wasn't so stupid after all.

Thompson kept clicking through the different experiments that they had done on the dog, after it had turned. Santana wanted to feel bad for it, but to be honest that thing really wasn't anywhere cute or adorable any more. It was a fucking bloodthirsty beast, that should have been killed immediately if it had been up to her. However it still didn't look like Thompson had been affected by anything he had shown Santana so far, he just kept talking about what he knew about the zombies.

"It even looks like most of those things seek each other out to form a group, so they can hunt together. It seems like they have found out that they have greater chances of surviving, if they stick together in larger groups. Even if their almost brain-dead, I still believe that they have a strong survival instinct left. They'll do almost anything possible to get fresh blood, but strangely enough it seems like they try to stay alive, if it's a possibility. They obviously know if something will kill them, but maybe it's just the virus that has taken over the control. Maybe it knows how to best keep the host alive, but to be honest most of this is just us guessing and then trying to test if our theories are correct." He finally clicked off the monitor.

"So what we are essentially trying to do is to find a cure that can fight the virus, before it can turn a human that has been bitten. That's why we took Campbell back with us yesterday, instead of shooting him right away. We need to test out if one of our possible vaccines, will help him survive. If we can find one that works, then we can save ourselves, if one of us gets bitten on one of our missions."

Santana's brain was in overdrive from all the information she had been given. She didn't know what to think about it all. The only thing she knew for sure, was that she had to keep Rachel safe and the rest was irrelevant right now. Since they had no place to go or even food to eat, if they decided to step outside those fenced gates to try to survive on their own, the choice wasn't hard to make. So when Thompson asked her again if she still wanted to join his unit, she nodded her head and quietly accepted the uniform he gave her. He smiled and told her that they didn't have one in her tiny size, but that Mrs. Grimes had tailored it last night, so it should be small enough for her to wear.

* * *

The uniform actually fit like a glove, when Santana put it on later. Mrs. Grimes had pulled her into another building, when she finally exited Thompson's office several hours later, to see if she had to adjust it more. Apparently Mrs. Grimes had a really good eye for things like that, because she only had to do some minor adjustment on the jacket. Before she lead Santana to a new building, where apparently most of the soldiers and their family sleep. She quickly followed Santana to the new room and told her that Thompson had declared that she could have the weekend off, before she had to report back on Monday for duty. She wished Santana a good night and walked out of the building again.

Santana stared at the door before she finally hesitatingly opened it and found Rachel sitting on a double bed, looking out of the window at the darkening sky. It looked like the bed had originally been two single beds, that had just been pushed together.

When Rachel turned around, because of the door being opened and saw Santana. She quickly stood up from the bed and immediately tried to explain what she had done, when she noticed that Santana was looking at the bed.

"We can take them apart if you like, you don't have to sleep beside me if you don't want to."

She was probably going to rant some more, because she always started doing that when she was nervous, but when Santana saw her tear stricken cheeks, all she could do was to rush to her side and pull her into a tight hug. Rachel was completely caught of guard, but quickly returned the hug. This time she cried some happy tears, since Santana obviously wasn't mad at her any more.

It took her a while before she registered that Santana was wearing a military uniform and the sight made her heart beat faster. Ever since yesterday she hadn't been able to stop picturing Santana going out their again and maybe coming back to her dead or even worse. So she desperately wanted to say something, maybe even beg her not to do it. Still Rachel didn't yell at her, she didn't say anything at all, because she knew that it was probably even harder for Santana than it was for her.

She wasn't stupid, she had immediately guessed that this was the reason that they had been allowed to stay at the base in the first place. At least that was the impression she had gotten from Mrs. Grimes, when she talked to her earlier while Santana was in her meeting with Mr. Thompson. Mrs. Grimes hadn't seemed very pleased that Thompson had brought in two unknown people to their base, because that had apparently never happened before. Through out the whole conversation Rachel had with Mrs. Grimes, she hadn't exactly hide what she thought about the the two of them staying there. It really hadn't been anything remotely positive and it had made Rachel feel utterly miserable.

After that horrible talk with Mrs. Grimes Rachel had decided, while she sat alone in their new room waiting for Santana, that she wouldn't make it harder on Santana. At first she had wanted to yell at Santana for being so dumb, but that wouldn't be fair of her to do, when Santana was obviously doing this to keep them both safe and away from danger. Instead she had decided that she was going to support her and trust that Santana knew what she was doing. Rachel had decided she would do that even if it was almost tearing her apart, just thinking about everything that could happen to Santana.

So Rachel didn't let go of Santana and just kept holding onto her for the rest of the night. She didn't know it then, but Santana really needed her to hold her in her arms. It reminded her of why she had agreed to join Thompson's unit in the first place. She wanted to keep Rachel safe. So Santana decided to push away that bad feeling she was having and told herself that she was doing the right thing. She was doing it to keep Rachel and herself alive.


	20. Chapter 20

******Warning for chapter 20: **Violence and Cursing

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

**A/N: **Santana and most of the guys in Thompson's unit, still calls the infected humans zombies. They still prefer to call them that, even if they know that they're not technically living dead.

* * *

**Chapter 20**

The next day Santana refused to tell Rachel anything of what Thompson had told her. Even if Rachel really wanted to know, she dropped it, at least for the moment. Because she could tell that Santana was in a bad mood and she feared that the other girl would get angry with her again and Rachel really didn't want that.

However Santana hadn't let her conversation with Thompson go so easily. The more she thought about everything he had told her, the more she felt like the base was a dangerous place for them to stay, something just felt off about it all. Santana had tried to push the feeling away, but for some reason she hadn't been able to fall asleep last night. She had been laying in Rachel's arms, listening to her sleep. It had suddenly dawned on her, that Rachel was the only thing she had left. She was in fact the only thing that made life worth living, after Santana had lost everything else. With that realization in mind, Santana was determined to keep Rachel alive, no matter what it would take. So if there really was something wrong with this place and her gut feeling was right, which it usually was, she needed to get Rachel and herself out of the base as quickly as possible. So she carefully slipped out of Rachel's hold, the other girl whimpered in her sleep because of the loss, but luckily she didn't wake up. Santana quietly walked over to the window and looked out at the base which was, at the moment, shrouded in darkness.

As she stood there thinking, several different plans for how they were going to get out of the base started taking shape in her mind. She knew that right now, she didn't have all the necessary knowledge about the base to make an effective getaway. So she had to wait till she got more insight in how the base worked, before she could make a really foolproof plan, that would guarantee them a safe escape.

Sure Thompson had told her that they didn't have to stay, but Santana had a nagging feeling that he wouldn't let her go so easily, because he obviously needed her. Therefore Santana feared that he might react the wrong way, if she told him that she wanted to leave. She really wasn't afraid of what he could do to herself, which probably wouldn't be too bad since he needed her skills, but she was scared of what he might do to Rachel. Thompson didn't need her, but Santana did and he had quickly picked up on that. So he would probably use Rachel to get to her and that would probably end in him forcing them to stay. Santana still didn't feel like she could trust the guy. So she had no plan of ever telling him, that she was thinking about leaving the base. In Santana's opinion, Thompson and his men really had to be a bunch of idiots to bring zombies inside the base. So who knew what other things they were capable of doing and that thought really scared her.

Still Santana knew that they unfortunately had to stay at the base, throughout the rapidly approaching winter, but after that she had no plan of staying there any longer than necessary. Especially since she now knew that there were zombies inside of the fences too, not only on the outside. She had thought that those fences would at least protect Rachel, against those blood crazy monsters roaming outside. Santana really didn't care that she herself had to go out there again, that didn't matter as long as her going out there would keep Rachel safely inside the base. That was the only reason she had agreed to join Thompson's army, because she had thought that it would keep Rachel out of harms way. But now she knew better and if staying at the base couldn't keep Rachel safe, than Santana would just have to find another place that could.

Santana ended up spending several hours contemplating possible ways for them to escape, before she reluctantly crawled back into bed when the sunlight started chasing the night away. Rachel instinctively moved closer to Santana, when she lay down beside her. Santana couldn't stop herself from smiling at how adorable Rachel looked and carefully wrapped her arm around the other girl to move her closer. Thankfully it didn't take long before Santana drifted off to sleep. To her immense annoyance she was woke up only a few hours later, when someone knocked at their door. It turned out to be Mrs. Grimes, telling them that she expected both of them to meet her outside the building in an hour. Santana was grumpy for the rest of the day and Rachel quickly understood that and tried her best to avoid aggravating her more than necessary.

* * *

Since Santana had been accepted into Thompson's army, Mrs. Grimes used the whole day to show the two girls around the base. While she dutifully repeated every rule that they had to comply by, even if she had already told Rachel every single one of them yesterday. Apparently she just wanted to make sure that Santana knew them too, in case Rachel had forgotten any of them. Rachel really didn't look pleased. For some reason it seemed like Mrs. Grimes didn't like Rachel and the feeling only intensified, when Mrs. Grimes decided to only concentrated on Santana the whole day and ignored Rachel as much as she could. Well that was unless she had a snide remark to throw in her direction.

There were an insane amount of rules, but Santana was happy to hear that since she had joined the unit her and Rachel would get two five minutes showers each week. To her delight they could be taken separately, which Santana was really pleased about. Those who wasn't in the army or relatives, only got one tree minutes shower each week. Every shower was scheduled by Mrs. Grimes, since she had the only key to every cabinet that contained an emergency water shut-off valve. If you wanted to clean up before bed or in the morning, there were specific times you had to do that, since everything had to be overseen by someone Mrs. Grimes had pointed out. This was necessary since they had to ration water and no one was allowed to use too much, not even Thompson himself. It surprised both girls that they even had to get a key from someone in charge to go to the toilets, because every room that had access to a water source were securely locked and only a few people were entrusted with a key. Santana really hoped they would get the water supplies fixed soon.

There were also a lot of small privileges that they would have, that the regular people didn't get. Some of them were only for Santana, but most of them were for both her and Rachel. Mrs. Grimes was so kind as to point out that Rachel shouldn't even be getting any of these privileges, since she technically wasn't Santana's family, but Thompson had apparently liked miss Lopez so much, that he had told Mrs. Grimes that Rachel should be treated like she was Santana's family. Thompson had even demanded that Rachel should be working with Mrs. Grimes. That was apparently a huge honor, according to Mrs. Grimes, since she was the one that had the sole responsibility of making sure that everything worked correctly inside the base.

* * *

They found out later that this was indeed true and that Thompson had done Rachel a big favor by giving her one of the best jobs there. Unfortunately that didn't exactly make Rachel popular, among the other army wives at the base, who had more demanding jobs than Rachel. Work which Rachel didn't have to do, as she and Mrs. Grimes only delegated and checked that everyone did their jobs correctly. So most of them immediately resented Rachel and the rest just followed the others lead.

The obviously jealous women only tried to take revenge on Rachel once, but wisely enough they all stopped and never tried any other attempts, to sabotage and humiliate her. They didn't dare to. Because when Santana found out about their first successful prank, she marched over to the laughing group of women and threatened to feed them all to the zombies herself, if they ever laid a finger on Rachel ever again. For the rest of that day, nothing could wipe away the big smile Rachel was wearing or the scared expression all the wives had, when she came anywhere near them. Most of them even started frantically looking around to see if Santana was around. If she was, she would send them an evil smirk in return and bang her teeth together, as if mimicking a zombie, just to make sure that they got her message into their stupid brains.

* * *

Mrs. Grimes also informed Santana that she would be getting some privileges all to herself. Stuff like an extra shower when they came back from a mission, but that wasn't always necessary since they usually took showers off base, if they found a house with working electricity. She also got more and better food than Rachel, but Santana quickly found a way around that too. It really wasn't that difficult, since Rachel ended up eating with Santana most of the times. Even if the base rules clearly stated that no military personnel, wasn't allowed to eat with the soldiers. Rachel proved to be surprisingly talented in getting around the rules and always managed to sit beside Santana, whenever she ate a meal inside the base. Mrs. Grimes obviously wasn't happy about it, but strangely enough she didn't do anything other than stare at Rachel in annoyance. Santana later found out that Mrs. Grimes had complained to Thompson, but he had told her that if Santana wanted Rachel there, than she could stay.

So of course nothing changed and Rachel would always end up sitting beside Santana at meal times. Where Santana would discreetly give Rachel most of her vegetables or switch food with her, so she didn't have to eat meat. Thompson always noticed, since Santana had been so privilege that she had even gotten a seat at his table, the only other solider that had been given that honor was Grimes. After a week of observing the two girls eating habits, Thompson secretly told Mrs. Grimes to give Rachel fish instead of meat, whenever it was possible, since he had seen that Santana always ended up eating Rachel's meat anyway. After that Rachel never received meat and no one complained about it, since meat was rarer and a more popular meal than fish, on most of the base's inhabitants menu. Rachel of course didn't argue, she was just happy that she didn't have to get meat on her dinner plate again, because it always made her lose her appetite.

* * *

Rachel and Santana quickly adjusted to their new life inside the base. For the most parts they had no real problems with the rationing of water or food or any other of the insane amount of rules they had to live by. Before they knew it, they were so used to everything, that it seemed like a normal part of their day. Still there were some things they didn't particularly like.

For Santana the thing that bothered her the most, was the constant flirting from the single guys in her unit. There were only a few women and children living in the base and most of the women were already married to the guys in her unit or to some of the workers. The others were usually too young, for the single guys to go after. So when Santana and Rachel came to the base, they all thought that they finally had at least two shots at getting a girlfriend.

Still it wasn't the guys flirting with herself, Santana didn't like. She was already used to sleazy guys flirting with her, they had done that before the outbreak too, so this really wasn't something new. She had eventually decided to put an end to it, when she kneed one of the guys in the balls because he got a little bit to handsy. Before she shouted to the rest of them, to stay the fuck away from her or she would go all Lima Heights Adjacent on their asses. They left her alone after that incident, but that obviously meant that all of them shifted their interest to Rachel instead. It didn't help that Thompson had asked them politely to stay away from Rachel, even if Santana hadn't asked him to do that, they still tried to charm her into picking one of them to be her new boyfriend. The whole thing was driving Santana crazy, not because she was jealous, not at all. It was purely because it was clear to her, that none of them were even remotely worthy of Rachel. After having to watch those losers desperately trying to get into Rachel's pants, for almost two months. Santana finally snapped one night, when it all became too much for her to handle. It started with the units arrival back home, after being away from the base for almost a week.

It was late in evening when Thompson and his unit, now including Santana, had just come home from yet another successfully mission out in the fields. They had been really lucky this time and found a lot of useful supplies, so the whole unit were celebrating with a rather good meal. Usually when they came back, no one other than the unit were allowed inside the mass hall, but for some strange reason Rachel always seemed to get inside to sit beside Santana. Of course no one in Thompson's unit ever complained about her being there. Especially not the single guys, they were usually too busy showering Rachel with all the presents they had managed to find her, on their newest mission. Rachel had tried to make them stop with the gifts and the flirting, but Santana knew that they were all a bunch of idiots, that obviously couldn't take a hint. They kinda reminded her of Finn, but of course she never told Rachel that part.

Santana was by now pretty used to their pathetic attempts to woo Rachel. The difference this time was that they were behaving a lot more aggressively, than they usually did. If only one of those idiots had been really interested in Rachel and paid her any honest attention and not just been thinking about getting her into bed. They would have noticed that Rachel was looking even more uncomfortable than usually. The whole thing was aggravating Santana, even more than it usually did.

When two of the more tactless guys, Carter and Baker, started fighting about getting Rachel's attention and managed to bump into Rachel. So she ended up smacking her head on the table, that was finally the last straw for Santana. She already hated how much those two idiots harassed Rachel, on a daily basis. So she quickly looked over to her Captain and he discreetly whispered to her "You need to claim her Lopez." and winked at her, like she knew what he was talking about. Santana did.

Thompson had already told her to do that, several times before. Especially those times Santana had ended up complaining to him, about his guys being rude to Rachel. But Santana had always been too reluctant to do what he had suggested. This time however her patience was wearing thin and when she looked over to Rachel, who was rubbing the little bump she had received from the impact with the tabletop. She quickly nodded and jumped up on the dinning table, not caring about the things that fell to the floor and shattered. She was going to put an end to this once and for all. Santana shouted out so loudly, that she drowned out all the other noises in the mess hall.

"LISTEN UP FUCKERS!"

Every guy in the mess hall immediately stopped whatever they were doing and turned around and looked at her. Even the two idiots that were still fighting, but this time because they were trying to find out who's fault it was that Rachel was hurt, quickly stopped and sat down. The whole unit had already come to respect Santana a great deal, after they had seen her in action out on their missions. She had even managed to save most of their asses, from being eaten by zombies, so they kinda liked her. They also knew that their Captain favored her the most, so when Lopez spoke, they kept quiet and listened to her talk. Santana seemed satisfied with the response she got and smirked down at them.

"Now since I have your attention, there is something I need to make clear. It seems to me that some of you haven't understood, that this lady is off-limits." She pointed at Rachel.

"So I obviously have to beat it into you're brains." She was still pointing at Rachel.

"This is MY GIRL and if I see any of you guys come anywhere near her ever again, in one of your pathetic attempts to get into her pants, I will fucking kick your ass out of this base and let the zombies eat you up alive!" The whole unit was looking at her with fear in their eyes, as Santana continued.

"You all know that I have killed four men already, just to protect Rachel and I'm not afraid of killing some more. So back the fuck away from MY GIRL, if you don't want a bullet between your eyes! Am I making myself clear?" No one answered, they all looked too shocked to respond. The silence infuriated Santana even more.

"I WILL FUCKING CUT YOUR BALLS OFF AND FEED THEM TO YOU, IF YOU TRY TO FLIRT WITH MY GIRLFRIEND AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

Every guy in the room quickly nodded their head in fear, even the married ones that had never been anywhere near Rachel. They were all afraid of losing their balls, because they already knew what Santana was capable of doing. Not one of them doubted that she would do it in a heartbeat and probably with a big smile on her face. Some of them even cupped their junk, to protect it from the clearly enraged girl.

"Good! And remember the only reminder I'll give you, if you forget any of this, is the sound of my gun firing a bullet into your brain!"

Santana gave them an evil smirk before she sat down beside Rachel again and continued eating her meal, as if nothing had happened. Rachel just looked at her with her mouth open in disbelief, but Santana just ignored her. Thompson quickly cleared his throat and stood up.

"Okay guys you heard what Lopez said. I have already told you to stay away from Rachel, but you obviously didn't listen. So now I'm giving you a direct order. Miss Berry is from now on, off-limits. If any of you disobey my order, I will personally let Lopez do whatever she find fitting as a punishment, even if she decides to shoot you. So I recommend that you stay away from her girlfriend, because I would hate to lose more men than necessary. Now let's get back to the celebration of yet another successful mission!"

He sat back down and after a while the rest of the guys loosened up again and started talking among themselves. Most of it was probably about the new development, but Santana ignored everyone till she got back to her and Rachel's room. Then she was forced to talk to her livid roommate.

Rachel hadn't said anything since Santana, so barbarically, announced to the whole unit that she owned her. She had been in a state of disbelief and shock over Santana's despicable behavior, but when they were alone in their room, Rachel finally felt the anger coming to the surface. Earlier that day she had been so happy that Santana was finally back again, still alive, but right now she was furious with her.

"What was that?!"

Santana didn't look at her. She was standing beside the window, just staring out, trying to ignore Rachel for as long as she could. When she finally answered, she seemed bored.

"What are you talking about?" That made Rachel even more irritated.

"Don't play dumb Santana! You know what I'm talking about. Why did you act like a caveman and claim to "own" me in front of your whole unit. We're not even together!" Now it was Santana's turn to get angry. She quickly turned around and shouted.

"I KNOW THAT WERE NOT TOGETHER!" When Rachel flinched back in fear, Santana lowered her voice and looked at Rachel pleadingly.

"I did it for you. I know how much you have hated those guys constantly harassing you, ever since we came here. I did it to get them to stop. This is the only way that they will back down. Yeah, you're not really my girlfriend, but those guys doesn't know that." Santana scratched her neck and looked down at the floor, avoiding eye contact with Rachel.

"I told Cap about your problem and he suggested that this was the only way to get them to back away from you. The only thing that those guys respect, is not to mess with another mates girlfriend or wife. So the only way to get them to back off from you, was to pretend that your my girlfriend. That's the only thing those guys understand to stay away from." Santana finally looked up at Rachel again, pleading for her to understand.

"Those guys out there aren't good guys Rachel."

"Grimes is a good guy." Santana rolled her eyes.

"He's married Rachel. I'm talking about the rest of them. Those who have harassed you for nearly two months. They're not good guys, especially not Carter and Baker. I need to protect you from them and this is the only way that they will back away from you. I know that you really hate that they're hanging around you all the time, especially those times when I'm not there to stop them."

"I have to admit that I'm not particularly fond of them constantly trying to get my attention, but I still wish you would tell me why they're so bad. You always demand that I stay away from them, but you never want to tell my why." Santana sighed.

"I really don't want to argue about that again, can't you just please trust me when I tell you that those two are bad news." Rachel looked down and nodded in defeat.

* * *

Rachel knew from previous experiences that she wouldn't get any answers from Santana anyway, even if she pushed. Santana simply refused to tell her anything about what they were doing on those missions or anything about the guys in her unit, so Rachel usually just gave up. If she didn't, they would always end up fighting and Rachel hated when they fought. One of those fights had even been so bad, that Santana had refused to talk to her for a whole week.

The seemingly regular fight about Santana not telling Rachel anything, had suddenly escalated because Rachel had been so frustrated by Santana's constant refusal to tell her anything that she, for some stupid reason, had ended up shouting that Santana didn't really owe her anything. That she didn't have to take care of her, just because she felt guilty for killing her fiancé. Then she reminded Santana about the fact that, according to her, Rachel had killed her girlfriend, so that should make them even. Santana had just turned around and walked out of their room and hadn't return that night.

Rachel had regretted every single word she had said, the moment Santana left. She hadn't even meant them. It was just that she had been so angry with Santana, that she kept refusing to let her in, that she had finally had enough. She just wanted Santana to feel as bad as she made her feel, by shutting her out, that she hadn't thought about what she was doing. Of course it quickly proved to be a huge mistake and Rachel wished she could just take it back. She hadn't even been able to sleep, without Santana by her side. All she could do was to worry about where Santana was staying. Santana eventually returned to their room, late the next day, but she didn't talk to or acknowledge Rachel for the rest of the week. Rachel had decided, there and then, that she never wanted a repeat of that week, ever again. So after that argument, she had usually been the one to just give up and let Santana win. Even if it was slowly driving her insane, not knowing what was happening with the other girl. Especially since she knew that something was terribly wrong.

* * *

Santana saw that Rachel shoulders sagged in defeat. She sighed again and walked up to Rachel and hugged her, before she mumbled into Rachel's hair.

"I'm sorry that I behaved like a caveman, but all I wanted was to keep you safe. Even if you don't believe me, it really was the only way I could make sure that they will stay away from you."

Rachel closed her eyes and melted into the hug. She finally felt all the anxiety, that always weighed her down when Santana left the base, leave her body. All that was left was the feeling of being totally and utterly exhausted. The whole time Santana had been gone, Rachel had been lucky if she had managed to sleep more than a few hours a day. The few times where she finally drifted off to sleep, she would always wake up screaming, from a horrible nightmare involving Santana being killed. So right now she had no more energy left and all she wanted to do, was to crawl into bed with Santana and sleep in her arms. So she brokenly asked.

"Can we just go to bed?" Santana nodded.

Not long after, they were both laying in the modified double bunk bed, quietly looking up at the ceiling. Finally Rachel swallowed and bit her lower lip, before carefully turning towards Santana and whispered.

"I'm really happy that you're back."

Santana slowly turned around. Rachel could clearly see the tears in her eyes, that was threatening to spill.

"I'm really happy to be back."

Rachel quickly crawled over to the other girl and hugged her tight, while Santana finally let the tears fall and desperately held on to the other girl, as she cried in anguish.

Rachel really hated when Santana came home crying, because that always meant that something bad had happened on their latest mission. She had foolishly hoped that this time would be one of the good times, since the mission had been a success. But apparently something else had happened, because Santana only cried when something had gone wrong. The worst part for Rachel was that the only thing she could do, was to hold Santana in her arms and try to comfort her. Because that was the only thing Santana would allow her to do, since she constantly refused to tell her why she was crying or let Rachel try to help her with the problems she was obviously having. The whole thing was slowly breaking Rachel's heart and she desperately hoped Santana would open up to her soon, before it was too late. Santana eventually cried herself to sleep, while Rachel stayed up thinking about how she could get Santana to open up to her. It took a while before Rachel finally drifted off to sleep herself.


	21. Chapter 21

******Warning for chapter 21: **Violence and Cursing

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 21**

The next morning Rachel woke up before Santana, she usually did after years of meticulously planning every single step in her day, starting with an early awakening in the morning to get the most out of the brand new day, that was laying ahead of her. Instead of getting up, as she would have done before the outbreak, she remained in bed and lay there, just watching Santana sleep safely in her arms. Rachel loved how peaceful Santana looked, when she was asleep. Rachel cherished these little moments she secretly had early in the morning, without Santana knowing. Because as soon as Santana woke up, her whole demeanor would immediately change and Rachel would witness first-hand, how Santana transformed into a person she no longer recognized as her best friend.

It didn't take long before Rachel's thoughts started wandering to what had happened yesterday. Which in turn lead her to think about everything that had been going on with Santana, since the two of them had started living inside the military base. Rachel felt that Santana had changed so much, after they came to this place and she was extremely worried about her. All she wanted to do was to help Santana, with whatever it was that was bothering her so much, but that had proved to be an extremely difficult task to accomplish. She really had tried to help, but Santana never wanted to talk to her about anything other than how Rachel's day had been. When Rachel ask her the same thing, Santana usually refused to answer any of her question or she would just shut down completely. The whole thing was extremely frustrating for Rachel, because she knew that something obviously wasn't as it should be.

Rachel felt like the root to this problem had started on their first day living at the base, because it was on that day Santana had her first private meeting with Thompson. It had been after that conversation, that Santana had started persistently refusing to tell her anything that was happening when it came to herself or her unit. The only thing she would talk to Rachel about, were usually subjects Santana considered safe enough for Rachel to hear about. It seemed to Rachel as if Santana was trying to shut her out of her life and that really hurt Rachel. The whole thing had ended in Rachel feeling almost abandoned by Santana, even if the other girl was still there by her side, physically. She certainly wasn't there for Rachel mentally.

So when Santana had slowly started pulling away from her and kept refusing to let her in, Rachel had started feeling like she was all alone. The feeling of loneliness only intensified for Rachel, when Santana went out of the base with her unit to gather supplies. Because even if Santana didn't say much to her anymore, Rachel at least had one person to talk to, but when Santana left Rachel was more or less by herself and had no one she could lean on. Yes she could talk to Mrs. Grimes, but the older woman never wanted to talk to her about anything else, than what they needed to do to make sure that everything was taken care of inside the base. Rachel was pretty sure that Mrs. Grimes still didn't like her and that the only reason she tolerated her at all, was probably because Thompson had told her to.

The rest of the army wives at the base, still didn't want to talk to her, if they didn't have to. Rachel knew that the reason they were still angry with her, was that they were jealous that she had gotten to work with Mrs. Grimes. She was just thankfully that they at least had stopped bullying her, after Santana threatened to kill them all. Rachel knew that she should have found Santana's behavior towards the other army wives deplorable, she had even told Santana that she shouldn't behave like that, but to be honest Rachel couldn't stop feeling delighted, that someone had stopped those horrible women. Rachel had to admit to herself, that it felt a little like that yesterday too. She knew that she shouldn't condone Santana's primitive behavior, but today she couldn't seem to feel anything but happy, that Santana had chosen to protect her against some of the more aggressive guys in her unit. Rachel tried not to think about why Santana acting like a cavemen, felt so nice. Especially since she had always hated whenever Finn had acted like that, when they had been a couple.

To be honest it really didn't bother Rachel too much, that the other women in the base, so stubbornly refused to talk to her. However it really didn't help to lessen the feeling of loneliness, when Santana was gone either. It certainly didn't make Rachel feel any better, when she was missing Santana, to know that most people left inside the base, seemed to be trying to avoid her as much as they could.

Just thinking about it made Rachel feel a little depressed, so instead she let her mind drift to the fact that Santana wouldn't be leaving the base for three whole weeks. Thompson had told them the good news yesterday, as a treat for the whole unit. Apparently they had been so lucky on their last mission, that it wouldn't be necessary to go back out again, as quickly as they usually did. Rachel was really looking forward to having Santana by her side, for so long. It was a wonderful feeling to know that Santana was safely inside the base, where no zombies could get to her.

Whenever Santana had to go out on one of those salvaging missions, Rachel was constantly worrying about her till she finally came back to the base again. Rachel was always afraid that she would end up losing Santana and be left behind all alone, without her. What made the waiting time even worse, was the fact that Santana never wanted to talk to her about what they were doing out there. Something that of course made Rachel worry even more, because she had a feeling that something bad was happening on those trips, if Santana wouldn't tell her about them.

The fact that Santana was hiding something from her, was made even clearer to Rachel in the way that Santana acted, when she came back from a mission. Usually Santana was either happy or angry, but sadly for Rachel it seemed that she came home more often as the latter. One time she had even been so angry about something, that she had ended up denting one of their bedroom lockers in frustration. It was a constant reminder for Rachel, when she looked at the dented door, that something was terrible wrong. Whenever Santana came back in that mood, she ended up holding Rachel in her arms the whole night, as if she was trying to protect her from something or maybe someone. Rachel just wished she knew what it was.

The few times Santana would come back happy, she would tell Rachel almost everything about their mission. It mostly was about them shooting some zombies and finding food. Nothing really interesting, but that didn't matter to Rachel. She was just happy that Santana was smiling, something she rarely did anymore and Rachel really missed her smiles. So on those few occasions, Rachel ended up not trying to get Santana to tell her more. Because she really loved those rare moments she got, where Santana seemed to be happy. Those moments never lasted long.

Then there was those times Santana came back crying, like yesterday. Rachel hated those times. Santana would put up this indifferent stone like facial expression to the rest of the base, but when she finally came into their bedroom, she would just break down and start crying. She never told Rachel why she was crying or what it was that had happened. Instead she always threw herself into Rachel's arms and cried herself to sleep. Rachel had tried to find out what it was that made Santana so upset and made her react like that, but when she tried to ask about it, Santana always responded with either crying even harder or she would just end up shutting Rachel out for days.

So in pure desperation Rachel had started asking the other army wives, if they knew anything about what might have happened on their husbands last mission. She had been careful not to raise any suspicion among the other wives, because she didn't want them to tell someone about it. That would probably be a dangerous thing, if Santana was in some kind of trouble, but mostly Rachel really didn't want Santana to know that she was trying to find out what she was hiding. Because Rachel was certain that Santana was hiding something important from her. Unfortunately she hadn't found out very much, because apparently the other wives didn't know anything more than she did.

Still at least she knew for sure, that it wasn't because someone had died, Santana would always tell her about that. Whenever a guy in Santana's unit had been killed, she would just say that they had deserved to die, because they were too fucking stupid to even follow a simple order, that was meant to help them survive. Usually she ended up complaining about the fact that even the zombies, seemed to be smarter than the guys in her unit. So she never took it badly, if one of them died.

It was slowly driving Rachel insane, that she didn't seem to manage to find out more. She really didn't know what to do. I was clear to her that Santana hated living inside the base, but she didn't know why or how she could help her. Most of the time Santana would just sit in their room in deep thoughts or she would go out to fix something for Thompson, even though Rachel knew that it wasn't her time to patrol the base. Mrs. Grimes had all the work lists, for both the civilians and the military, so Rachel had of course memorized by heart whenever Santana was on duty. That's why she knew that Santana was lying to her, when she claimed that she had to patrol or do something for Thompson. Rachel didn't know why Santana felt like she had to lie to her or the reason why she was sneaking out so much. Rachel desperately wanted some answers from the other girl, but as she was laying there, with Santana in her arms thinking about her, she didn't know that it would take over a month before she finally got them.

* * *

Rachel was sitting alone in her and Santana's bedroom, thinking about the last month. For the most parts everything had been better for her, after Santana had publicly claimed her as her "property". All the single guys in Santana's unit had, to Rachel's delight, left her alone after they found out that she was apparently Santana's girlfriend. To Rachel's surprise all the army wives had suddenly started treating her better, they had even talked to her a little bit more. Rachel suspected that their change of heart only happened, because their husbands told them the news that she was now officially Santana's girlfriend. Still Rachel wasn't complaining about it, to be honest it was rather nice to finally have more people to talk to. However on the negative side, Santana had been even more moody and angry, after she came home from their newest mission. She had even started sneaking out a lot more and it worried Rachel immensely.

At first Rachel had been afraid that Santana was getting tired of her. She knew that she maybe acted a little bit too clingy, whenever Santana came back from a mission, but it was just because she had missed her so much. She was always terrified that Santana would end up not making it back to her and therefore she was always overjoyed, when Santana came back alive. Something that usually resulted in her being maybe a little bit too affectionate towards the other girl and trying to spend every single second with her. Rachel had eventually worked out, that it couldn't be the case. Because Santana still kept holding on to her at night, like she was afraid that Rachel would be taken away from her. So it seemed to her that Santana still wasn't fed up with her.

So of course Rachel had started to think of other reasons, for her sneaking out. Surprisingly some reasons scared her more, than she thought they would. Like Santana possibly sneaking out, because she was meeting someone and it wasn't the talking part Rachel was afraid of. No she just really hoped that Santana wasn't sneaking out, to hide that she was sleep with some random woman, but to be perfectly honest Rachel had to admit that her theory was probably highly unlikely, since most of the women at the base were married or too young for Santana. But it didn't take long before Rachel suddenly started fearing the possibility that Santana had hit on one of her colleges wives. If that would prove to be true, it would be a really bad thing, since that could end up being extremely dangerous for Santana whenever her unit were out in the fields. Especially if the husband found out and decided to take revenge on her. Rachel could just imagine how easy it would be, for one of them to just pretend to miss fire and hit Santana instead of a zombie and end up killing her instead. Rachel had quickly shook that horrible image out of her head.

Rachel had even for a brief moment, started to worry if Santana really was feeling so bad about herself. That she had ended up sleeping with one of the men in her unit. Rachel really hoped she wouldn't sink so low, that she would go back to how she acted in high school. But she quickly sought comfort in the fact that Santana, for the most parts, hated the rest of the guys in her unit. So she would probably never stoop so low.

Rachel knew that there probably could be a lot of other reasons for Santana sneaking out, but even if she tried to think of other more likely causes for the other girls actions. She still couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of Santana hooking up, with one of the skanky army wives at the base. Not that Rachel had any saying in who Santana chose to sleep with, she was just worried about her, that was all. Why she suddenly got this overwhelming desire to murder all the army wives at the base, was just a big mystery to her. In the end Rachel blamed her sudden and obviously momentary loss of sanity, on the lack of sleep she was having. She had been constantly worrying so much about Santana, that it had resulted in her having severe problems sleeping. So that was probably the reason, she had lost her mind for just a second.

* * *

So once again Rachel found herself sitting there, all alone in their room, pondering how to get Santana to talk to her. Even if she had tried her best the last month, she still hadn't found any solution on what to do about the problem. So just like every time before, she eventually just gave up and decided to just wait for Santana's shift to be over, so they could go grab some dinner in the mass hall together. That thought made her smile, because Santana would always give her most of her vegetables or fruit, just to make sure she got enough food. Rachel really loved how much Santana tried to take care of her, even if it wasn't always necessary.

Rachel got abruptly dragged out of her happy place, by screaming and shooting outside their building. The clearly unusual sounds made Rachel's heart start to beat quicker and she immediately wondered where Santana was. She was about to get up, to take a look outside, when Santana came rushing into their bedroom and quickly slammed the door shut behind her. She had obviously been running, because she was desperately trying to catch her breath. But what freaked Rachel out the most, was the fact that Santana was covered in blood. Rachel almost panicked, when she thought that someone had shot Santana. Maybe one of the husbands had finally caught her red-handed in bed with his wife and decided to kill her, but Santana saw the fear in her eyes and quickly calmed her down.

"It's not my blood!"

Relief flooded Rachel's body, but she quickly ended up worrying whose blood it was. Maybe Santana had finally snapped and killed someone herself, like she had threatened to do to almost everyone living at the base. Because it looked suspiciously like Santana was planning to flee. She was quickly opening one of the bedroom lockers, that Rachel had always thought had been locked, before dragging out their old backpacks. The last time Rachel had seen them, over three months ago, they had been empty, but now it was clear to her that they had been packed. She was truly confused. She had no idea what was going on and she was just about to ask, when Santana beat her to it.

"I haven't got the time to explain everything right now. All you need to know is that we are in grave danger and we need to leave right now, okay?" Rachel nodded weakly.

"Take this backpack and here's your gun. You need to follow me and do as I tell you to. Don't try to do something stupid!"

Rachel swallowed in fear. She still didn't know what was going on, but it couldn't be anything good. She got even more confused when Santana went to their bedroom window, instead of heading to the door. She carefully opened it up and peeked out, then she waved for Rachel to follow her and gestured for her to be quiet. They climbed out of the window and Santana quickly lead them to a military truck, standing close by. Rachel immediately recognized it to be the vehicle Santana used, whenever her unit had to go on a new mission.

They were almost at the truck, when Rachel heard more gunshots being fired and people screaming in horror. She turned towards the sound and could see some of the army wives and their children running for their lives, while a group of zombies were chasing them. Rachel couldn't believe her own eyes and quickly started to say something to Santana. "Shouldn't we help-" She immediately stopped talking when she saw that the zombies, surprisingly quickly, caught up with the fleeing group. Rachel had to look away from the gruesome sight in front of her. Before she heard Santana hiss out "Rachel!" Santana was now standing beside the open car door, impatiently waving for her to hurry up and get inside.

Rachel was about to start running towards her, when Santana quickly lifted her gun and pointed it straight at her. Rachel didn't know what to believe and she almost backed away in fear, when Santana suddenly pulled the trigger. Rachel heard something fall behind her and when she turned around, she saw a dead zombie laying right by her feet. She didn't have time to freak out, about the fact that the zombie had almost reached her, because Santana immediately shouted out.

"RUN!"

Rachel looked up from the zombie, laying dead on the ground and saw the group of zombies, that had just torn apart most of the women and children in the base, running towards them. They had obviously heard the gun shot and was now coming to kill them too. Rachel didn't waste anymore time and ran to the car as quickly as she could. She barely made it, before the zombies reached the truck and started banging on it, to get inside. Santana had thankfully already started the car and hurriedly raced away from the zombies, that immediately chased after them.

Rachel was almost in a state of shock, but she still managed to have a small panic attack, when Santana sped up the truck and drove it straight through one of the fenced gates, to get them out of the military base. The impact however made Rachel's whole body shoot forward, unfortunately she had been too distracted by the zombies to put on her seat belt. So when the truck hit the gate and nothing held Rachel back, securely in her seat, she inevitably ended up hitting her head on the dashboard. The last thing she remembered was hearing Santana scream "RACHEL!" before the dark surrounded her and everything went black.


	22. Chapter 22

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 22**

When Rachel finally woke up, she had a hammering headache and felt dizzy and disoriented. She had no idea where she was, because it was completely dark around her. Rachel desperately tried to piece together how she had gotten there or whatever it was that had made her head hurt so much, but she had no luck recalling much because of the major headache she was having. It almost felt like someone was trying to split her head in two and it made it really difficult to think. The last thing she remembered was that Finn, Kurt, Blaine, Brittany, Santana and herself had gone out on the town, to celebrate their last day together in San Francisco. However she had no recollection of ever getting back to her and Finn's Hotel room. So most likely it was probably Finn that had brought her back to their room and made sure she got into bed safely.

Maybe she couldn't remember anything more from yesterday, because the celebration had gotten a little out of hand. Which would explain why she felt like she was having a really awful hangover, but to be honest Rachel knew that she usually wouldn't drink more than a glass of wine. Because as a principle she always tried to moderate her drinking to a minimum, especially after what had happened to her because of that train wreck of a house party, that she had tried to throw in high school. Sometimes Rachel even believed that she could still smell how her hair had reeked of alcohol and vomit, after Brittany had thrown up on her. After that incident, she had vowed to never drink again. Of course she hadn't been able to keep that promise, but since then she had still managed to never drink so much, that she had ever had a hangover again. Rachel was quite proud of that.

Right now however she was desperately trying to sort out her jumbled mind, to try to remember what she could have been drinking yesterday, that would have caused this horrible headache. The only result she got, was that the pain in her head intensified and she suddenly felt like she was about to throw up. She was contemplating if it was a good idea to try to sit up, to fight off the nausea, when suddenly something beside her emitted a low grunting noise. The logical thing was probably to think that it was her fiancé, laying beside her in their Hotel bed, but surprisingly for Rachel the sound triggered something in her memory.

Suddenly everything that had happened to her in the last five months, came rushing back to her and she immediately bolted up in fear. The sudden movement made whatever was beside her, fall down to the floor with a loud bang. Rachel quickly used the opportunity to try to get away from it, as fast as possible, but since she didn't know where she was and because it was still pitch black around her, she only managed to tangle her feet in something and tumbled down to the floor herself. Rachel desperately tried to get up to her feet, but it seemed like she was completely stuck in whatever she had tangled herself into and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to get out of it.

Rachel felt that she was about to have a full-blown panic attack, when she was suddenly completely blinded by the sudden light filling the room she was in. Now she was stuck and on top of that she couldn't see a thing. Rachel started hyperventilating when something touched her and she instinctively screamed out in fear. She really didn't want to die and she certainly preferred not to end up being eaten by a zombie. But then she heard a voice, that calmed her raising heart in an instant.

"Relax Rachel, it's just me."

Rachel couldn't help it, but she started crying in relief. It was only Santana trying to help her up, from the floor she had landed on. Santana immediately embraced the crying girl and tried to calm her down.

"Hey don't cry. You're safe, it's only me. Everything's okay." Santana knew that the last part was a big lie, but at least they were both still alive.

After a while Rachel stopped crying, because it only seemed to make her headache even worse. So instead she carefully tried to open her eyes, but it took some time before she managed to finally adjust to the light. She was extremely relived, when she was once again able to look up into Santana's worried eyes. Santana smiled back at her, but Rachel could see the underlying anxiety in her eyes.

It didn't take long before Rachel, hesitatingly, took in her surroundings. She didn't recognize the room they were in, but it was obviously a bedroom. They must have been sleeping on the bed, when she woke up. Because of her hazy brain, she had thought that Santana was a zombie. So in her panicked rush to get away, from the possible threat, she had fallen down from the bed when she had managed to tangle her feet into the bedspread. Rachel looked up at Santana again and saw that she had gotten a little bump on her forehead. Santana smiled and carefully touched it.

"A little souvenir from you scaring me half to death, when you bolted up. You pushed me right off the bed and head first down to the floor." Rachel looked down and whispered.

"I'm sorry." Santana smiled at her.

"Don't be. I'll survive. I'm just glad that you're finally awake again. How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts." Rachel whined in pain. Santana chuckled.

"Yeah that's no wonder. Let's get you back to bed and then I'll get you some painkillers and a glass of water." Santana stood up and then picked up Rachel and carried her back to bed. Before she got Rachel two painkillers and a glass of water from her bedside table. Rachel greedily swallowed it all.

"Thank you."

"No problem." Santana took the now empty glass and sat it away, before she climbed back into bed with her. Rachel licked her lips and looked around once more, before she carefully asked.

"Where are we?"

"We're in one of the many abandoned houses that my unit cleaned out, when we were on one of our missions."

Rachel nodded in understanding, but immediately stopped when pain instantly shot through her head because of the movement. She quickly grabbed her head to lessen the pain and found out that she had a bandage wrapped around her head. Santana quickly answered her next question, before she even got the chance to ask it.

"You hit your head pretty badly in your impact with the dashboard. Unfortunately you got a head wound, but I stitch it up with the emergency kit I had in my truck. But don't worry the scar shouldn't be too bad, because my papá thought me how to fix a flesh wound. One time he even made me patch up one of my own wounds, that I got when we were out camping." Santana lifted up the bedspread and showed Rachel a little scar on her right thigh.

"He said it would build character, if I had to do it myself. So luckily for you I had some experience, so I doubt the scaring will be that visible."

Rachel knew that if this had happened before the outbreak and she had suddenly woke up to Santana telling her that she had just stitched up her head wound, she would have freaked out. Right now however she was strangely calm about the whole thing.

"I think that you probably got a concussion too. So I have been trying to wake you up ever since we got here, but you have stubbornly been refusing to stay awake or open up your eyes for me. You didn't even know your own name when I asked you, so you probably hit your head pretty bad. The only thing I could do was to just keep waking you up, as often as I could." Santana looked at Rachel and smiled.

"I'm really happy that you finally woke up."

To be honest Santana was overjoyed that Rachel was finally awake, because she had been genuinely terrified of the possibility that she would die. It had really freaked her out, when Rachel couldn't even recall her own name. The worst thing about the whole situation was that it wasn't like she could just call a doctor or bring Rachel to a hospital to get help. So Santana had felt completely helpless, when she couldn't do anything more than hope and pray that Rachel would eventually regain consciousness again. Santana didn't know what she would have done, if Rachel hadn't made it.

Rachel was a little bit overwhelmed, because she couldn't even remember being woken up or the accident, but unfortunately she could still recall everything that had happened to her before the crash. So she hesitatingly asked.

"Why were there zombies inside the base?" Santana's smile vanished immediately and she sighed.

"If I promise to tell you tomorrow, can we just go back to sleep now? I'm exhausted and I don't think you can handle a lot of information, with the headache you're having." Santana looked at her pleadingly.

Rachel knew Santana was right. She could already feel that the painkillers were starting to kick in, because all of a sudden she felt really drowsy. So she answered Santana's question, by snuggling up to her. Santana smiled down at the sleepy girl beside her. She quickly turned off her bedside table lamp, before she wrapped her arms around Rachel. It didn't take long before they were both asleep.

* * *

The second Santana opened her eyes the next day, Rachel was all over her and not in a fun way. She wouldn't stop asking her questions long enough for her to even answer them. It was really exhausting and Santana was still tired after the sleepless night she had been through. Because even though Rachel had finally regain consciousness, Santana had still taken no chances. So she had kept waking up Rachel, once an hour, throughout the rest of the night. She knew from experience with some of her friends, when she was on the high school cheerleading team, that it was important to wake someone that often, if you suspected that they had a concussion. So Santana really hadn't gotten a lot of sleep. Therefore she ended up doing what she usually did best, she tried to derail the one-sided conversation, in hopes of Rachel letting it go.

"STOP TALKING!"

Rachel shut her mouth and stared at a visibly angry Santana, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. Santana couldn't believe that Rachel was so energized, even with a head wound and a possible concussion. How was that even possible?

"I have just woken up and you can't ambush me like that. At least give me some time to eat breakfast first. Maybe even take a bath too, before I answer any of you questions."

Santana had deliberately mentioned the part about the bath, in hopes of distracting Rachel. She knew that Rachel hadn't taken a warm bath, since before the outbreak. Santana on the other hand had been so lucky to get a few bath herself, on some of the missions she had been on. So she didn't miss them, as much as Rachel did. She noticed that Rachel wasn't particularly impressed with her attempted at stalling, but the other girl still lightened up when she heard the word "bath" coming from Santana mouth.

"We have a bathtub? A bathtub with hot water?" All thoughts about questioning Santana went straight out the window for the moment, all Rachel could think about now was the promise of a hot bath. Santana smirked in triumph, she knew she had won. Well at least she had won this round.

"Yes we have. That's one of the reasons I picked this house. It's close enough to the power plant to have electricity. So why don't you go fix yourself a steaming hot bath and I go fix us some breakfast, sounds good?" Rachel vigorously nodded her head in happiness, even though that still hurt, so she quickly stopped. But she was still extremely excited, so she didn't care too much about the pain.

Rachel climbed off the bed to get to the bathroom, but she suddenly paused and turned around. It looked like she was about to ask another question and Santana sighed and prepared herself for the worst, but instead Rachel quickly closed her mouth. She suddenly had this far away look in her eyes and then she blushed, before she carefully shook her head. She quickly averted her eyes to the floor and she didn't look up at Santana again. Instead she quickly turned around and hurried to the bathroom. Santana didn't get whatever it was that had just happened, but she decided that she really didn't have the time to figure that out. Because her stomach used that moment to signal, that it was time for her to make some food instead.

* * *

Inside the bathroom Rachel was waiting for the water to fill up the tub. She was intently staring at her bandaged head in the mirror, before she carefully touched it. She was wondering if she had hit her head so severely, that she had completely lost her mind. Because just a moment ago, she had almost asked if Santana wasn't going to take a bath with her. That question in itself probably wasn't that strange, since she could blame it on being so used to the water rationing at the base, that it just seemed natural to save water. Either way she had thankfully stopped herself, before she had managed to ask. Still that wasn't why she was staring at herself in the mirror, like she was completely crazy. No, it was mostly because of the reason that she had stopped in the first place, before she could ask Santana to join her. It was because of the image that had suddenly popped into her mind, as she was about to ask. The image of her and Santana bathing naked together in the bathtub.

The image of Santana's naked body close to hers, had unexpectedly made Rachel's mind go to a place it clearly wasn't supposed to go. That's why she had tried to get away from Santana, as fast as possible, when she had realized what she was thinking about. What would Santana think about her, if she knew what she had imagined? Rachel was discussed with herself, because she obviously wasn't supposed to think these things, about someone who was her best friend. Clearly she had gotten a worse concussion than she had thought, that was probably the reason she had suddenly imagined Santana in that way. There couldn't be any other explanations. So Rachel quickly settled for that, before she carefully climbed into the warm bath water and closed her eyes in delight. It felt truly amazing to feel the hot water surrounding her body once again. Rachel decided to forget about everything else, at least for now and just enjoy this bath for all it was worth.

* * *

In the meantime Santana was trying to come up with a plan, on how to make Rachel forget about her promise to tell her everything. She really didn't want to tell her anything, it was clearly better for her not to know about the things that had been going on back at the base. So Santana brainstormed a variety of alternatives to get out of this, but she was still nowhere closer to a solution when she had finished making breakfast. Maybe it would help her think better, if she had something to eat. So Santana walked out to the living room to tell Rachel that breakfast was ready, but she immediately froze when she was about to shout out for Rachel to join her.

She had thought that Rachel would still be in the bathroom, but apparently Santana had been so consumed pondering a solution to her problem, that she hadn't heard that Rachel had finished bathing and had walked to the bedroom to get dressed. Because right now she found herself staring at a butt naked Rachel Berry, standing in their new bedroom, drying her hair with a towel. Rachel had obviously forgotten to closed the bedroom door completely, because it was standing ajar. Apparently she wasn't aware that Santana could see her, through the bedroom mirror, standing there naked, in all her glory.

Santana knew that it was wrong and that she was supposed to look away, but she couldn't stop herself from continuing to take in the beautiful sight of Rachel's body, because the sight in front of her was truly mesmerizing. It really didn't help matters that when Rachel finished drying her hair, she apparently decided that this was a good time to inspecting every cut and bump on her body, that she had been inflicted with since this whole nightmare had started. Santana was having a really hard time looking away from Rachel touching her own body and the sight was really started to turn her on. She couldn't prevent herself from picturing how those tiny hands would feel, if they were caressing her body instead of Rachel's. How good it would make her feel, if they just dipped down a little bit lower and-

Santana's train of thoughts was interrupted, by a loud bang coming from outside the house. Every previous thought, running around in her mind, was instantly gone from her head. Instead she quickly grabbed her gun and hurried to one of the living room windows. She carefully peeked through one of the curtains, that she had made sure were covering every single window in the house. Her heart was hammering in fear, but it slowed down a little bit when the only thing she could see was that one of the trash cans had fallen over. She didn't see any other suspicious movement outside.

She really hoped that it was only the wind that had blown the can down and nothing else. If it was a zombie, they would still be safe inside. She had specifically picked this house for a reason and that was because all the windows were too high up, for any zombies to get through if they tried to break in. The only way to get in through one of them was to stand on something and as far as Santana knew, the zombies luckily wasn't that smart. The basement windows were hopefully too small, but just in case they weren't, Santana had made sure that the basement door was securely looked and barricaded.

So the only thing that would scare her right now, was if it turned out that it was a human that had tipped that trashcan over. Humans could do a lot more damaged to them right now than any zombie, but she already knew that there were no humans left in this area, thanks to her unit. So most likely it wasn't a human, unless someone from the base had managed to track them here. To be honest Santana desperately hoped, that most of her unit hadn't made it out of that base alive. Because it could get really ugly if they somehow had managed to follow after the two of them here, but she highly doubted that anyone had done that. Still Santana couldn't deny that she was terrified about the possibility, of ever bumping into some of those guys again.

The worst part was that she knew that both Baker and Carter hadn't been inside the base, when the zombies had attacked. They had, along with three other guys, been on duty at the power plant this week to keep it safe. Thompson had developed this system, where five of his guys were stationed at the plant to keep their electricity supply safe. At first Santana hadn't understood how any of the guys in her unit, could be smart enough to ensure that a power plant could stay up and running for so long, but Grimes had been so kind to tell her that they were only keeping watch. While some of the power plant workers, that had initially been trapped there before Thompson's unit had saved them, were taking care of the maintenance. In exchange for keeping the base's power supply steady, they got protection and food. Santana had never meet them or been to the power plant herself. Thompson usually send the single guys there, since they had no one back at the base that would miss them, for the week they were gone. Technically Thompson knew that Santana was single too, but Santana had a feeling that he didn't want to send her alone with four of his guys, so far away from the base, for as long as a week. Santana certainly hadn't complained about his decision.

She really didn't want to think about what some of those guys would do to her, if they had managed to get out of the base and found her and Rachel, all alone in this house. Well Santana obviously knew what Carter and Baker would do when it came to Rachel, but she would make sure that something like that only happened over her dead body, which probably was the most likely ending either way if they managed to find her. She would probably get killed for betraying them and running away with Rachel, instead of saving the men in her unit and their families.

Santana knew that she obviously should feel guilty for abandoning the base, but in her opinion she had made the right decision. She had chosen to save her own family. She had chosen to save Rachel. As strange as it sounded Rachel was now her family, she was the only thing Santana had left. The only thing worth fighting for. Rachel was her highest priority now and to be honest she was probably the only reason Santana still wanted to live. So Santana knew that she was willing to do everything possible to keep her alive, even if that meant killing or letting others die to make that happen.

After surveilling the area for a little bit longer, Santana finally closed the curtains and turned around, after deciding that it had to be the wind. Her eyes automatically sought out Rachel, who was now standing in the bedroom doorway, fully clothed, looking at her. She looked scared. Santana just shrugged her shoulders and tried to seem as indifferent as she could, while she walked back into the kitchen.

"Breakfast's ready."

Rachel followed after her and they ate in silence, but when they finished Rachel jumped Santana again, with a ton of questions. Rachel wasn't particularly impressed when Santana postponed it again, by demanding that she was entitled to a bath first. In the end Rachel gave in, as she always seemed to do in fear of angering Santana too much.

This time however Santana knew that she was running out of options, to get away from telling Rachel the truth. She obviously had to tell her something, but Santana was still stuck on what and how much. She cursed herself for not coming up with a better plan for this, but most of her plans had fallen apart at the base, when those zombies had broken out. After Santana's original escape plan, the two of them weren't supposed to try to get out of the base before next month.

Santana really hadn't thought that the zombies inside the base would managed to break out, even if she had been afraid of it since the day Thompson told her about them. So she had only come up with a good lie to tell Rachel, when her plan to get them out of the base had succeed. However that lie didn't fit this scenario at all. That's why she needed more time, because she had no idea what she was going to tell her. She was desperately trying to find an explanation, that Rachel would believe. The problem was that Rachel obviously wasn't stupid, so most of the ideas she managed to come up with, as she was laying in the bath, wouldn't work on her. Santana had no idea how she was going to get out of this.


	23. Chapter 23

******Warning for chapter 23: **Violence (might be some hinting towards other possible triggers, but the acts are not described)

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 23**

Santana felt a little bit better after her bath, but the second she had managed to get dressed, Rachel almost pinned her down to finally get some answers. Santana tried once more to get out of it, but this time Rachel wouldn't let it go. Her persistence was really starting to annoy Santana.

"You don't want to know Rachel!" Apparently Santana wasn't the only one that was fed up and Rachel snapped back at her.

"Stop treating me like a damsel in distress! You're NOT my knight in shining armor!"

Santana didn't know why those words hurt so much and for some stupid reason, she had to bite down on her tongue to prevent herself from crying. Rachel didn't seem to notice Santana's mood change and just kept going.

"I have never asked you to baby me. I'm a grown women, so I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. I don't need you to protect me all the time. You probably think that I can't take it, but I'm not some little girl who can't handle the truth! Do I really have to remind you that since this whole thing started, I have lost my fiancé and three of my closest friends. I have been threatened by lunatics not once, but twice. I have almost ended up as a sex slave. I have nearly drowned and frozen to death. Not to forget that I have barely survived being eaten by zombies, so many times that I have lost count. On top of that I have been forced to start eating fish again, something I swore to never do again. So don't you dare come here and tell me what I want or don't want to know. You are not in charge of my Santana Lopez!"

Santana was trying her best not to feel like Rachel was ripping out her heart and throwing it on the floor before she, just for fun, decided to stomp all over it as hard as she could. Most of the things Rachel had been screaming at her was true, but what she had seemingly conveniently forgotten in that rant of hers was the most important part, the part where Santana was the main reason for her still being alive. If she hadn't saved her from Finn, countless zombies, those psychotic guys and forced her to stop being a vegan, Rachel would have died a long time ago, but apparently Rachel didn't think so. Santana didn't know if she felt more like screaming or crying. She was desperately trying to stay in control and not attack Rachel back.

The last time the two of them had a huge fight like this was back at the base. The whole thing had ended in Santana leaving their room to try to calm down, but this time she couldn't just wander out of the house. It wasn't safe out there, not like it had been at the base, well as safe as it had been before the zombies broke out. So Santana desperately tried to distract herself from her increasing anger, by digging her nails into the palm of her hands. The pain helped a little bit. She even got briefly distracted, because she started wondering when her nails had become so long, but she quickly focused on something else when the answer brought her back to Brittany's death and her not having any sex with anyone since then. She had apparently zoned out, because Rachel was impatiently tapping her foot and looking at her like she wanted to strangle her.

"I want to know everything!" Even though Santana was hurt, she still tried one last time. She didn't meet Rachel's eyes and whispered out.

"You don't want to know." Rachel wasn't impressed.

"SANTANA!" Her outburst got Santana to finally look up at her. Rachel barely noticed how vulnerable the girl in front of her looked, before she angrily kept on shouting.

"I'm not like Brittany and I'm certainly not your girlfriend, so stop lying to me!" Santana looked at her in disbelief, before she suddenly exploded.

"Fine, suit yourself!" If Rachel didn't want to be protected, then Santana wasn't going to protect her anymore.

Santana was so angry that all she wanted to do was to hurt Rachel, so she could feel as shitty as she had made her feel. In that moment she clearly wasn't thinking straight and her whole mind was taken over by the rage she was feeling. Before she could stop herself, she ended up telling Rachel everything she had been hiding from her, but surprisingly she didn't start with the base. No, in her vengeful state Santana decided to start from the beginning and tell Rachel every little thing she had desperately tried to shield her from.

She told her about Kurt almost dying back in the garage. That Kurt's dead body had almost been unrecognizable, because his face and most of his body had been eaten by the zombies. About why there were so many graves in the backyards in the village and what her and Blaine had found inside most of those houses. She told Rachel every gruesome little detail, about what those guys had done to their families and what they had written in those letters, that Santana had desperately tried to forget for so long.

She told Rachel how Blaine had been threatening to kill her, because he had blamed her for Kurt being bitten. That the reason he hadn't done it the first time he had the chance, when Santana had almost died because she hadn't seen the zombie she was heading for, was only because Rachel was still alive. How he later on had made sure to tell her every chance he got, that he would make sure he got his revenge on her the second Rachel died. That if Blaine hadn't been so angry with her, he would probably still be alive. If he hadn't hated her so much because of Kurt's death, he would probably have listened to her and stayed in the car and turned around when she asked him to, instead of getting out just because she told him to stay in the car.

Then Santana told Rachel about the fact that she had almost died that day, when she went to look for that hunting cabin alone, because it had only been sheer luck that she had made it back to Rachel at all. If she hadn't fallen down into that creek, she would for sure have been bitten since one of the zombies had managed to grab a hold of her. Luckily she had accidentally slipped on a rock and tumbled down the hill, if she hadn't done that the zombie holding her would have succeeded in sinking his teeth into her arm. Finally Santana told Rachel all about Thompson. How they had only gotten rescued by him, because he wanted Santana in his unit. That if she hadn't been so good with a gun, they would both have been dead by now.

At this point in the story Santana's rage had subsided a little bit. She hadn't been looking at Rachel, while she had screamed at her everything that she had been hiding from her, but she could still hear small sobs coming from the other girl. She knew that she had gone too far. Rachel hadn't known about all of this, she might have asked for the truth, but she really didn't know how much Santana had been keeping from her. She had only wanted to hear about the stuff that had happened at the base, not everything Santana had hid from her from the start.

When Santana finally forced herself to look at Rachel, her heart felt like it shattered into a million pieces, because Rachel looked so broken. Tears were running down her cheeks and she was visibly trembling. Santana wished she could take everything back, but it was too late. At that moment her earlier wish to hurt the other girl was completely gone and she no longer had any desire to tell her anything more, but Rachel apparently knew what she was thinking about and sniffled out.

"Continue! I said I wanted to hear everything, so don't stop now."

Santana really didn't want to continue what she had so stupidly started, but she also knew that there were no use in arguing with Rachel. So she looked away from the crying girl and decided to stare at the floor instead, before she carried on with her story. This time without screaming it.

"So Thompson told me that he only saved us, because he needed me in his unit. I really had no plan of ever joining, since my instincts told me to get us as far away from them as possible, but then he suddenly blindsided me by informing me about the fact that his unit had cleaned out the house we were going to stay in for the winter. I had no other choice then to accept his "offer" to take us in. Since I quickly figured out that we were forced to stay inside the base, at least for the winter. I decided that the safest thing for me was to join Thompson's unit, to have the best chance of keeping us safe till I could find a way for us to get out. Most of the things I did back at that base, I only did to keep us both safe. That was also the reason why I told them that you were my girlfriend. I'm painfully aware of the fact, that I never told you why I wanted you to stay away from the guys in my unit, but the thing is I really didn't want you to know what kind of people we were living with. I had a bad feeling about those guys right from the start, that was the main reason I didn't want to go with them in the first place, but unfortunately Thompson left me no other choice than to accept. My suspicions were unfortunately confirmed when I had that talk with Thompson, where he ended up telling me a little bit about what they were doing inside the camp." Santana looked up at Rachel again.

"Are you sure you want to know this?" Rachel bit her bottom lip, but nodded for Santana to go on. Santana sighed.

"Those zombies that almost killed us in the base yesterday, were inside the base because Thompson was keeping them there to try to experiment on them."

"Th-there were zombies inside the base?" Rachel looked shocked.

"Yes. He was keeping them in those grey buildings, that were surrounded by barbed wire."

"I asked you if you knew what those buildings were used for. You said you didn't know!" Rachel didn't seem pleased with her.

"I didn't want you to worry about it! I actually didn't believe that they would get out. Even though I have to admit that I was afraid of the possibility, that some of them could manage to escape, but Thompson said they had everything under control. Apparently they didn't. To be honest I never knew what kind of security they really had, because Thompson never allowed me to go inside those buildings. So the moment he told me that there were zombies inside the base, I knew that we had to get out of that base as quickly as possible. My resolve to get us out, only got stronger when my unit and I were ordered by Thompson to capture more zombies on our missions, so they could experiment on them too. I didn't know how many zombies they kept inside those buildings, but in my opinion one was one too many. So I made a plan for us to get out of the base and I hoped to get us out as soon as the winter was over. I really hadn't planned on them breaking out, so our escape happened a little bit earlier then I had hoped." It looked like Rachel suddenly understood everything.

"So that's why you were so distant and kept sneaking out?" Santana scratched her neck and quickly averted her eyes away from Rachel.

"Yeah, I had to fix everything."

"So this was your plan?" Rachel gestured around the living room with her hands.

"Part of it yes, but my plan was to get out of the base with some more supplies."

"The backpacks and the car?"

"I packed those in case anything would happen and we were forced to flee. When Thompson gave me the keys to Campbell's old truck, after he died. I deliberately tried to park it outside our room if I had the chance, in case we needed to get away quickly."

"But this house?"

"Was one of the houses I was responsible for clearing out. Sometimes Thompson sent two soldiers in each truck to clean out a house together. Whenever that happened, I always ended up cleaning out houses with Grimes. Thompson didn't trust any of the other guys to go with me, I was apparently too much of a temptation for some of those other guys to handle." Rachel felt a little sick after hearing that. Santana tried to give her a reassuring smile.

"Still that was a good thing, because Grimes had already caught me trying to find an escape route out of the base, that I hoped we could use in the springtime. Surprisingly to me, he didn't report me to Thompson. I found out later that he decided not to, because he really liked you." Santana pointed at Rachel, who smiled at that.

"I told you that Tom was a good guy." Rachel smiled. "He reminded me of my dad." Santana tried not to roll her eyes, because Grimes reminded her of Finn, not Rachel's dad. Rachel's smile soon disappeared.

"I hope he and his family made it out alive." Santana highly doubted that, but she hoped they had.

"Yeah me too. Tom really was a good guy. He even helped me with my plan." Santana smiled. "He actually wanted to come with us, but he knew his wife would refuse to come with us because of their kids." Rachel scrunched her nose.

"Helen never liked me." Santana laughed.

"No she didn't, but she was still willing to help me smuggle out extra supplies to help us survive outside the base."

"She did?" Rachel looked surprised. Santana smirked.

"Yeah, but I think she only did it because she wanted to get rid of you." Rachel grabbed one of the couch cushions and threw it at Santana.

"Ouch! Domestic abuse!" Santana rubbed her head, while Rachel laughed at her, but Rachel's curiosity soon took over again.

"So they helped you with supplies and with this house?" Santana nodded her head.

"After we got lucky and found this abandoned house, Helen gave us things to smuggle out when we left the base to go on a mission. Tom and I were actually supposed to clear out this house, but when we found out that it was perfect for the two of us to take cover in. We decided to hide away everything we found that the two of us could possibly use, when we came here later on. Then we told Thompson that the house had been cleaned out already by the owners, something that wasn't that rare, so he didn't react to it. Either way he would probably never doubt anything Grimes told him." Santana knew that without Tom's help, she certainly wouldn't have been able to get this house and all the supplies they now were so lucky to be in possession of right now.

"So when we found this hideout, Tom told his wife about my plan. I really didn't want him to, but he knew we needed help to get more supplies. Helen wasn't trilled about him helping me, but she stood by her husband and decided to helped him help us. But like I said I really think she only decided to help us, because she was secretly looking forward to finally getting rid of you." This time Santana managed to duck, when Rachel threw the last cushion at her, before she stuck out her tongue to tease her about the fact that she missed.

"Too slow." Rachel just gave her a smile back.

"So that's why there's so much food here?" Santana gave her a questioning look, before she nodded her head. She should probably have known that Rachel would have used the waiting time, while she had taken a bath, to sneak around the house in an attempt to find some answers.

"Yes, we managed to smuggle out quite a lot, thanks to Tom and Helen. So we won't starve any time soon."

"So how were we originally going to get out of the base?"

"We were going to escape on one of our next missions. Since Grimes and I had started sharing my truck, we were going to smuggle you out with us. Then we would leave you in this house, while the two of us followed after the rest of the unit, so there wouldn't be any suspicious behaviour that would alert Thompson or some of the other guys in my unit. When the mission was over, Grimes would drive me here and then leave. We had this whole story he was going to tell Thompson, about how I had suddenly disappeared. Grimes would then tell him how he had tried to search for me, but that he hadn't managed to find me. We both knew that Thompson would believe him and eventually he would hopefully think that I had decided to run away. We were also going to plant something of yours in the back of the truck, so he would think that I had smuggled you out too. Since the mission would have been far away from this place, they would have started searching in the wrong direction, if Thompson had been stupid enough to go looking for me. But I really doubt he would have wasted any time on that, would have been too dangerous of him to send out his men on a wild goose chase."

"So what exactly happened at the base yesterday?" Santana looked straight into Rachel's eyes and Rachel could almost hear in her voice, how desperately she wanted Rachel to believe her.

"I really have no clue Rachel! All I know is that somehow those zombies, they were experimenting on, got out. At first we tried to stop them, but there were just too many of them. The strange thing is that normally we would have managed to take them down, we have even taken down larger groups before, outside if the base, but this group was so freakishly fast and strong, that we really stood no chance against them." Santana stopped and just stared at nothing, before whispering "I wonder if they were stupid enough to try to feed them or maybe they finally turned..." She suddenly stopped and looked at Rachel.

"Anyway, when the rest of the unit realized that we were going to lose, they panicked and ran away." Santana shook her head.

"Those guys really were bad soldiers, no wonder they hadn't been cleared to go overseas. I'm no solider, but it still didn't take me long to understand why Thompson needed me so much in his unit, because those guys were really useless!" Santana shook her head in disgust, before she continued.

"So when the rest of the guys fled, Grimes and I helped each other get away. Unfortunately we were later forced to split up to go rescue our own families, before we could try to get out of the base. So I really do hope that Tom, Helen and the kids made it out alive."

Rachel almost smiled, even if the story she was listening to was rather gruesome, because Santana had obviously considered Rachel as her family and that warmed her heart. However Santana didn't see that little smile, she was reliving those last moments in the base all over again in her mind.

"I know that you wanted me to try to save the others, but you need to understand that you're my responsibility Rachel. I needed to make sure that you were safe. I really had no chance to save anyone else, the zombies had already taken over most of the base. They were so fast and strong and they were almost impossible to take down. I had to make a decision and I chose to save you. I needed to save you!" Santana pleaded with Rachel to understand and when Rachel pulled Santana into her arms, she broke down.

Santana didn't want the rest of people in the base to die, well to be honest maybe she wanted some of the guys in her unit to die because they clearly deserved it, but there really had been too many of them. She wouldn't have stood a chance against them. So she had decided to save the most important person in her life, she had decided to save Rachel. Even if she felt guilty for not being able to save some of the people in the base. Santana still knew that she had chosen to do the right thing, when she had later on been able to put Rachel's unconscious body safely into that bed.

After a while Santana stopped crying and quickly dried away her tears. She took a big breath, before she tried to continue telling her story. She really wanted to get the rest of the stuff she had been hiding from Rachel out too, since she had finally managed to open up, but Rachel quickly stopped her by saying that the rest could wait till the next day. Santana didn't argue, because she was thoroughly exhausted. So even if she hadn't told Rachel the whole truth yet, she still felt a little bit lighter after finally being able to tell her most of what she had kept a secret for so long. It actually felt really good to finally get it out, even if it felt like she had been drained of all her energy. So not surprisingly, it didn't take long before Santana fell asleep.

Now it was Rachel's turn to lay awake, trying to sort out all the information she had been given. She had desperately wanted to get an explanation from Santana, but this was a little bit too much information at once for her brain to handle, so she needed time to process everything. But most of all Rachel couldn't stop thinking about how much she regretted being so hard on Santana. She knew that she truly owed her life to Santana and if it hadn't been for her rescuing her so many times, she certainly wouldn't be alive today. The truth was that she had been so frustrated with Santana, always refusing to explain, that she had snapped once again and said all those stupid things to her. She just hoped Santana would forgive her for acting like a complete jerk towards her, just because she had run out of patience to wait for the other girl to finally tell her what she had been hiding. It certainly had been a lot more than she had expected. To be perfectly honest Rachel was maybe dreading a little bit, whatever else Santana had to tell her tomorrow. Still she knew that she had no right to complain, because she had certainly asked for it. At least she had finally managed to get Santana to open up to her, so hopefully there would no longer be any more secrets between them after their talk tomorrow.

* * *

The next day Santana finally told Rachel about what her unit had been doing, when they left the base to go on their missions. The whole thing truly took Rachel by surprise. She honestly couldn't believe what Santana had been forced to endure on those trips. She had of course already heard the part about them getting supplies, but the part about what Thompson was willing to do to get them, really shocked her.

The day before Santana had told Rachel that the unit didn't save people they didn't need, which was the only reason the two of them had been saved. So for the most parts that obviously meant that Thompson's unit didn't save anyone. Santana had early on been given strict orders not to waste any bullets, saving anyone that wasn't in her unit. The one time she had tried to save someone, that wasn't from her unit. Thompson had been so enraged with her for wasting bullets, that he had threatened her with the fact that she would never get to see Rachel alive ever again, if she ever tried to do something stupid like that again, without his permission. She had also been harshly reminded that she was only there, because she was a resource they needed. So if she didn't do as Thompson told her to, he wouldn't even need to think twice about getting rid of her. Then he would let his guys do things to Rachel, that Santana absolutely refused to repeat to her. For the first time in her story, Rachel didn't force Santana to tell her the details.

Santana still remembered how most of the single guys in her unit had been laughing at her and begging her to do another mistake, so they could finally show her girlfriend a good time. She might even have beaten up Baker, because of a particular crude comment about Rachel. He had later sworn to someday pay her back, for humiliating him in front of his mates. So after that incident, Santana had done everything Thompson had told her to, except when he told her to kill another human being. Rachel seemed rather proud of Santana, when she heard that she had refused to kill innocent people.

This was the part that shocked Rachel the most, because Thompson and his unit clearly didn't care if anyone lived in one of the houses they robbed. A few times they would just rob the house and let the people live, but they all knew that the residents wouldn't live long without the food they had taken from them. Those were the times Santana had come back home angry. Then there were those times were some of the guys in her unit decided that they were bored and wanted to have some fun with whoever lived in one of the houses they robbed. That always ended in Santana laying in Rachel's arms crying her eyes out. Which suddenly wasn't so surprising why, when Rachel finally found out the truth. Because when Santana told her what among other Baker and Carter had done, to some of the women they had robbed, she wanted to throw up. She couldn't believe how they had even forced the other people living with them to watch, unable to do anything about it. Afterwards they would even tortured some of them to death, just for fun, if they felt up to it. The lucky once got killed instantly. Now Rachel finally knew why Santana had been so unhappy and why she had begged her to stay away from almost all of the guys in her unit, because apparently almost all of them had been a bunch of sadists. Rachel was suddenly really thankful that Santana had done everything she could, to keep them away from her.

Towards the end it had even gotten so bad, that Grimes had asked Thompson if he and Santana could clean houses alone, without anyone else. Thompson hadn't been happy about that, but since Grimes was his most trusted soldier, he had allowed it. They still had to rob every house they came to, but Grimes pretended not to notice that Santana let the people they robbed, keep some of the food to last them for at least a week. Santana never knew why he had decided to help her, since he had never told her, but the truth was that Grimes had done it, because he knew that he needed to get Santana away from what the other guys were doing. He could clearly see how much it was starting to affect her and he was really worried about her mental health. He was especially afraid of what she could end up doing, if she was forced to witness more of the gruesome things that was obviously starting to drive her insane. Grimes had known from the first time Santana had stood there, almost paralyzed with shock, looking helplessly at the unspeakable things happening in front of her, not being able to stop it from happening, that he needed to help her.

Still Grimes had to admit that he really admired how that little firecracker, had actually tried to stop it the first time she witnessed it, but sadly there really wasn't much she could hope to achieve against a group of guys almost twice her size. But there really were no wonder that she had immediately stopped trying, after Thompson asked her who she preferred his guys playing with: People she didn't know or maybe she would like it better, if he let them play with Rachel instead. Grimes had clearly seen how Santana had deflated, it was almost like he could visible see how her fighting spirit left her the moment his Captain had said Rachel's name. That was only the first time of many, that Grimes would witness Thompson threatening Santana to do as he wanted, just by mentioning Rachel's name.

So when Tom had caught Santana trying to find a way to escape, he had quickly reassured her that he only wanted to help them get out. Santana had been really suspicious of his motives at first, but after a while she started to trust him and in the end she even let him help her with the escape plan. Grimes knew that if it hadn't been for his wife and kids, he would have tagged along with Santana and Rachel, but he had a nagging feeling that Helen would never approve of leaving the base. Still he had been really grateful to his wife, that she had agreed to help the two girls get out of the base. So even if his wife didn't know why they were trying to leave, she had just agreed to help him. Helen never asked him why he was helping them in the first place, so apparently she didn't care why they wanted to leave. Grimes had a bad feeling that she was just glad to finally get the two "intruders" out of the base, because she had never approved of them in the first place. At least her hatred against the newcomers resulted in her being willing to help them leave, so he really could complain about it. So he and Santana had ,with his wife's help, started smuggling out supplies to this abandoned house they had found.

It was on one of their trips there that Santana had finally dared to ask him, why Thompson allowed that kind of behavior from his soldiers. He had been driving the truck, but he could still she from the corner of his eye, how upset the girl had looked. Tom was pretty sure that it was because of how his Captain had managed to push her into doing something she had refused to do for so long, but this time he had finally gotten to her. Tom really couldn't blame her for reacting the way she had, because he would have done the same thing himself, to protect the love of his life if he had been forced to.

Santana had then told him how his Captain had from the start, promised her that he would never allow his men to behave like animals. When Tom had asked her more closely what Michael had promised her, he had quickly found out that he hadn't directly told her a lie. Thompson had only told her that he would never tolerate his men acting like that towards Santana and Rachel, if they decided to come live with them at the base. What Thompson had told her was actually true, because he certainly did everything he could to keep everyone living inside the base safe and out of danger. Which was the reason every solider in his unit had been strictly ordered, to never lay as much as a finger on anyone inside the base. If any of his men were stupid enough to try something like that, they knew they would get killed or kicked out of the base immediately.

Of course Santana didn't know, as Tom did, that in the beginning Thompson hadn't even allowed his men to do anything to the people living outside the base either. He hadn't even let them rob their house, if someone was still living there. Unfortunately everything had changed after a tragic mission where Thompson had lost one of his men, because of one civilian refusing to cooperate with them. Instead of listening, the guy they were actually trying to help, had decided to shoot them. It had probably been a rash decision, in a stupid attempt to protect his property from someone he thought was a threat to his survival. They later found out, when they ransacked his house, that he had apparently been gathering food and survival supplies for years, in case of an emergency like this. Grimes guessed that he had been one of those crazy preppers, that he had heard so much about. Even though the term crazy probably no longer applied, after the outbreak happened. They had ended up coming back to the base with the biggest score so far, but the cost had been high. Before anyone could stop him, the guy had ended up successfully killing one solider and wounding five more. He probably would have managed to kill more, if it hadn't been for Thompson finally managing to put a bullet between his eyes. After returning to base with one man less and being forced to tell his wives best friend, that her husband had died, Thompson had drastically changed. Grimes, who had known him the longest, didn't even recognize him anymore.

From that moment his Captain had suddenly changed their whole tactic. Where they had earlier stayed away from people who had survived and maybe even helped them out. They now robbed them of everything they had, leaving them with almost no chance of surviving. Grimes and a few other soldiers had been opposed to the change, but all of them had families living at the base, so they had reluctantly gone along with it. However when some of the guys in his unit had started taking certain privileges, that they clearly shouldn't be allowed to, they had finally voiced their discontent. Just like Santana had been, they had also been reminded that they had someone back at the base that was depending on them. If they didn't like what some of their fellow soldiers where doing, they could just leave the base because no one was forcing them to stay. Since Tom and his fellow soldiers were already outnumbered, they knew that the smartest thing was to give up and let the majority of the unit do as they wanted. They all knew that leaving the base clearly wasn't an option, if they wanted to survive and keep their families safe. So they chose to closed their eyes and ignore the things they couldn't prevent, but it was obvious to Tom that Santana wouldn't be able to do that for long. So even if he couldn't save himself, her certainly was going to save her from living like that.

In the end Grimes told Santana that Thompson now viewed everyone, that wasn't living inside the base, as potential enemies. The fewer enemies there were, the better it was in his eyes. He had even regarded humans as more dangerous than the infected people. Simply because humans were, unlike the infected, after the same food as them and if those humans got bitten, they would turn into blood craving monsters. Which meant more danger for him and his unit. So it didn't matter to Thompson if they died, before they could become an even greater treat to him, his unit and their families. So that was probably the reason why Thompson, allowed his unit to do whatever they wanted to people living outside the base. As long as they didn't do stuff like that to anyone living inside the base, he pretty much just let them do as they pleased.

All Rachel could think, when Santana finally finished her story, was that she really hoped that Thompson and most of his unit had been eaten by zombies. Because they clearly deserved it. She almost wished she could go back there, because right now she had this immense desire to kill them for what they had put Santana through. Santana had clearly tried to avoid telling her some of the worst details of her story, but Rachel had seen right through her lies. Every time Santana had tried to shield her, Rachel had immediately stopped her and demanded that she tell her everything. It was so blatantly clear to her that the truth was weighing Santana down. So she obviously needed to push the other girl to get her to tell the whole truth, because it was evident that the whole situation had been slowly eating Santana up from the inside. Rachel knew that Santana desperately needed to get it all out or else it would certainly destroy her. Therefore she had pushed the other girl to tell her everything, even the things Rachel really wished she never had found out. Now she really knew why Santana hadn't wanted to tell her some of the things that she had been struggling with, but Rachel still didn't regret asking her to tell the whole truth. It was so obvious that Santana really needed to tell someone, about the things she had been through these last months. This certainly explained why Santana had been behaving so uncharacteristic. It was no wonder she had been so angry and devastated, while they had been living inside the base.

The only thing Rachel regretted was that she should have helped Santana before, she should have forced her to tell the truth earlier, even if the other girl had consistently kept refusing to. She could have helped her deal with this sooner, but it was too late now, she couldn't change the past. So Rachel decided that instead of thinking about what could have been, she was going to concentrate all her energy on the broken girl, that was currently crying in her arms. She was going to do everything she could, to try to pick up all her broken pieces and put them back together again. She knew that Santana would never be the same person as she had been before, but neither was Rachel, too much had happened to the both of them. The only thing they could do now was to stay together and help each other through this nightmare and just hope for a better tomorrow.


	24. Chapter 24

******Warning for chapter 24: **Violence and Cursing

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 24**

For the next couple of days Santana was so quiet and apathetic, that Rachel almost thought that she had lost her for good. If it hadn't been for her, Santana would have stayed in bed the whole day just staring at the wall. To Rachel it almost looked like something had sucked the life out of Santana and it really scared her that it felt like Santana had given up. So Rachel took it upon herself to try to do everything she could to get Santana back to her "normal" self. She push Santana to get her out of bed, she made her food which she almost had to force feed the other girl to even get her to eat, she entertained her, she fixed her baths and she constantly gave her hugs or took the other girl in her arms and held her tight. It really worried Rachel that Santana let her do all those things, without as much as protesting just a little bit, not even when Rachel cuddled up to her at night and took Santana into her arms, did she speak a week had gone by and nothing had changed, Rachel completely broke down one afternoon.

Santana had fallen asleep in their bedroom, something she had almost spent the whole week doing. Rachel had used the opportunity to carefully sneaked out of the bedroom, so she could get some alone time to think. She had tried so hard to get Santana back, but nothing had worked. No matter how hard she tried, she still couldn't come up with a solution. She didn't know what to do anymore. So all she could do was to cry. She hadn't allowed herself to cry for the past week, mostly because she had been too busy taking care of Santana, but in that moment she couldn't stop the tears from falling. She really missed Santana and all she wanted right now was to get her back again. So she cried for them both. She cried for Santana and everything she had been through to keep them both safe. It had completely broken Rachel's heart to know that Santana had gone through all of that on her own, just because she wanted to shield her from the truth. Which had made Rachel feel really guilty for not been able to help her, when she needed it the most. Perhaps she could have helped Santana earlier, if she hadn't backed down every time Santana had refused to tell her the truth. Instead she should have just kept pushing till Santana had finally broken, than maybe they wouldn't have ended up in this situation, where it almost seemed to Rachel that Santana had lost the will to live, something that scared her beyond belief.

Rachel had tried to keep her crying quiet, because of the sleeping girl in the other room, but after a while her sobbing was so loud that she didn't even hear the bedroom door open. She didn't even notice that someone else was in the same room as her, before she suddenly felt Santana pull her into her arms and stared whispering soothing words in her ear like "I'm here.", "I'm sorry." and "I'll take care of you." Santana hadn't said a word to her in over a week, so as a reaction to finally hearing Santana speak, Rachel started to cry even harder. However this time she cried in relief, because it was so incredibly good to finally hear Santana's voice again. For the first time since the two of them had left the hunting cabin, Rachel felt completely safe in Santana's arms and she quickly buried herself deeper into Santana's warm embrace.

After a week of sleepless nights constantly worrying about Santana's mental health, which had almost drained all of Rachel's usual energy, it certainly was no surprise that it didn't take long before the exhausted girl finally succumbed to sleep. Santana carefully picked up the sleeping girl in her arms and carried her to their bed. Where she held Rachel the whole night, vowing to herself to take care of the fragile girl laying in her arms, for as long as she was able to.

* * *

The next day it seemed like Santana was back to her old self again, which made Rachel feel like a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders. She couldn't stop smiling, because it felt so great to finally have Santana back. Well that was at least until Santana decided to tell Rachel everything Thompson had told her about Minneapolis. She also reviled the next step of her plan, about how she wanted them to try to drive there.

Originally Santana's plan had been to stay at the "safe" house, till Grimes came and told her that the coast was clear, in case Thompson had been stupid enough to go looking for them after their escape. After Grimes had given them the all clear, the next step had been to try to escape to Minneapolis, in hopes of finding a safe place for the two of them to stay. Now however there really was no reason to wait, since most likely there were no one looking for them because of the zombie attack at the base.

So Santana no longer had to fear being discovered by someone from her unit, if they tried to leave the house.

When Santana told Rachel her new plan, she immediately could tell that the other girl was a little skeptical, but she still told her that she fully trusted her. Surprisingly she had no doubt that Santana knew what the best thing, for the two of them, to do was. Since Rachel had given her approval, Santana insisted that they should start packing the truck, with all the supplies they had. Rachel didn't see why they had to hurry, but she still helped Santana get everything in order. When the truck was ready to go, Santana decided that the smartest thing was to head further north early the next morning.

* * *

Both girls were anxious and quiet when they woke up the next day. After a quick breakfast, Santana started the long drive to Minneapolis. She had told Rachel that she wanted to stay away from the military base or any of the major roads leading to the base, just in case someone had survived. She really didn't want to bump into any of the men in her unit ever again, but her need to make sure that they weren't in any danger of being followed by any of them, won over in the end. So Santana made a sudden last-minute decision and drove up to one of the high hills just outside the base, where she would get a good overview of the entire layout of the military compound. She just wanted to make sure that it would be safe for the two of them to head towards Minneapolis, without being constantly afraid of someone from the base chasing after them.

When they reached the top, they both got out of the truck and Santana brought out her binoculars to look down at the base. She immediately noted that the main gate was still damaged, after they had broken through it with the truck when they escaped the base. The fact that it was still open, gave Santana the first sign that there were probably no one still alive inside the base. The second sign was all the dead bodies on the ground, that laid scattered all around the base. She could clearly see that several of them were most likely some of the men from her unit, mainly because of what was left of their military uniforms, but there were also women and children laying there beside them. The third indicator was that there were still zombies walking around inside the fences. Most of them were still trying to feed of the meager remains of the dead bodies, that were laying on the ground. Santana quickly looked away from that gruesome sight. Instead she decided to scan the buildings, to see if she could possibly see anyone still alive inside them.

She highly doubted that anyone could have managed to survive for so long, especially without any food available. The only way anyone could get anywhere near the food inside the kitchen, in the mess hall building, would be to make a run for it and hope that the numerous zombies scattered all around the base wouldn't get a hold of them. Even if someone was stupid enough to try that suicide mission, Santana knew that they would have no luck getting into the food pantry or the freezer, without the help from either Mrs. Grimes or the two cooks that were stationed at the base. They were the only people with the keys to get into the food storage inside the kitchen. If you didn't have the keys, there would be close to a zero chance of ever getting past those steel doors, without some heavy power tools to help you. The only way someone could get the right tools for that job, was to go find them inside the base's garage. Unfortunately for any lucky survives, that building was located at the other side of the base. So the chances of anyone having managed to survive, with so many zombies walking outside the buildings, were highly unlikely.

It wasn't surprising to Santana, that it seemed to be just like she had thought, when she didn't see any movement inside the base, other than the zombies roaming around. So she quickly decided to do one last swipe over the camp, just to make sure she hadn't missed anything important. She was about to lower her binoculars, when something suddenly caught her attention by the west gate. Santana quickly adjusted the sight and when she finally managed to zoom in, she could clearly see that her fear was confirmed. Tire tracks! There was a set of tire tracks right outside the west gate!

Unfortunately Santana already knew what that meant, because it was only the soldiers that drove to and from the power plant that used that gate. It was obvious judging by the tire tracks, that however had been there had made an abrupt stop, before hurriedly turning the car around to drive back to wherever they had come from. Santana had been afraid of this. She knew that because of her unplanned breakdown, it had been over a week since they left the base, which meant that Baker, Carter and the three other soldiers guard shift at the power plant, had been over for at least a few days by now.

From her previous experience at the base, Santana knew that Thompson's guard changes always happened at the power plant, but most likely the five guys had gotten impatient or suspicious, after not being relieved from duty after a week had gone by. Which probably meant that those tire tracks outside the gate were from Carter's truck. Santana could only speculate that Baker and Carter had eventually decided to drive to the base, to find out why their replacements were late. The three other soldiers had probably been ordered to stay at the power plant till they got back, since they all had a lower grade than Baker and Carter and those two never left each others sides. So most likely the two of them had gone and when they reached the west gate, they must have been so shocked to see the base overrun by zombies, that they immediately turned back.

Santana didn't know for sure, but she was pretty certain that Baker and Carter would go back to the power plant, to get the three other guys and probably make an attempt to take back the base. Grimes had told her that the guys stationed in the power plant had plenty of food and ammunition stored there, just in case of anyone trying to take over the power plant or in case they found themselves surrounded by zombies. Santana would pretty much bet her life on her gut feeling telling her, that the five remaining soldiers would do everything they could, to try to secure all the remaining supplies that was left inside the base. There was no way that those guys would let all that food go to waste, especially when all that supplies could be use to secure their own survival. It wouldn't be such a difficult task for the five of them to clear out the entire base, if they just managed to lure most of the zombies to the fence and shoot them. As long as they stayed away from the broken gate, they would probably be able to take the base back, if they weren't stupid enough to try to go inside first. Santana quickly looked back to the damaged main gate. It was clearly to her that with just a little fixing, the five guys would for sure be able to secure the gate again. So if Baker and Carter managed to take over the base, there were no reason why they couldn't still live there and be perfectly safe from the zombies outside the fences.

Of course Santana didn't know for certain that Thompson's five remaining soldiers would try to take back the base, but if it had been up to her, than she would have definitely tried. To be perfectly honest she had actually considered the possibility, of her and Rachel trying to take over the base themselves. Just the thought of all that food and all those weapons, with bucket loads of extra ammunition, was really tempting. Santana knew that Rachel and her could have lived for probably over two years on all that food stored inside the base, without being forced to go outside the fences to find more supplies. However the odds of only the two of them managing, all alone, to clear out the base without being killed or bitten was rather slim in Santana's opinion. Sure they had some extra ammo for her and Rachel's guns, that her and Grimes had managed to smuggle out of the base, mostly by lying about how much ammunition they had used while they were on a mission. Usually no one questioned their extensive use, if they just claimed that they had been forced to shoot people, that wouldn't give up their stuff without a fight. However Santana doubted that the two of them had collected enough ammo for Rachel's gun, which unfortunately wasn't a standard military gun, for Rachel and her to even make a valid attempt at trying to take back the base on their own.

The most frustrating thing was that Santana had more than enough ammo for her assault rifle, but the problem was that her rifle had been kept safely locked up, with the rest of the units rifles in the ammunition room, when the unit weren't out on a mission. No one in her unit had been allowed to carry their rifles inside the base, just their handguns. Santana's originally getaway plan had of course been to escape, when she had been outside the base on a mission. Which of course would have meant that she would have been in possession of her rifle, but that plan had gone down the drain when those monsters got loose. So when they had arrived to their "safe" house without her rifle, Santana had unfortunately been stuck with a lot of extra ammo, that she had no use for without her rifle.

However even if Santana had been so unlucky not to get her rifle with her, she knew deep down that she would most likely still have considered trying to take over the base with Rachel, if it hadn't been for the treat of bumping into Carter and Baker. Just the thought of them coming anywhere near Rachel again, had scared Santana so much that she had quickly scrapped the idea of even trying. Because she knew that without Thompson, to hold those two guys away from Rachel, Santana had no desire to be anywhere near those two motherfuckers ever again. To be perfectly honest Santana didn't even wish to be in the same state as Carter and Baker, if she didn't have to. So in her mind Minneapolis was the perfect place to go, to get as far away from those guys as she could possibly get.

Santana finally lowered her binoculars. She knew that the smartest thing was to get as quickly away from the base as they could, before Baker and Carter managed to organize a counter attack on the base. She had no plans to be anywhere near this place, when they came back. Luckily it was still early, so she doubted that those two lazy bums would be able to even get up before noon. That hopefully left her and Rachel plenty of time to get away, if those two had decided to return to the base today.

When Rachel tried to make a grab for Santana's binoculars, to see for herself what was left of the base, Santana quickly stopped her. Rachel almost threw a temper tantrum, because Santana simply refused to give them to her. Thankfully she finally stopped when Santana pleaded with her to believe her, when she told her that she was better off not seeing what was left behind. So after some pouting Rachel finally complied, before she reluctantly got back inside the truck. Santana sighed and followed after her.

When Santana got back inside the car, Rachel was still sulking, but Santana deliberately chose to ignore her. Instead she folded out the map, Grimes had stolen for her, from Thompson's office. She studied their options one more time, to make sure that they were taking the right route to Minneapolis. She had in advance decided that they should try to stick to the smaller roads, because Grimes had told her that there were fewer cars blocking them, than the roads that usually had more traffic. Most of the bigger accidents had happened on the highways, when people fled the cities trying to escape the zombies, just like the five of them had done when they had tried to escape San Francisco after the outbreak.

Apparently Grimes had heard that most people outside the big cities had opted to stay home, because of the quarantine. So many of them had since been trapped inside their homes, prevented from leaving by the zombies roaming outside. Which meant that most of the smaller roads should still be open, at least that was what Santana hoped. She had discussed it with Rachel, but she had just told Santana that she trusted whatever she decided to do. Santana didn't know if it made her more proud or scared, that Rachel just let her decide their faith.

In the end Santana had gone with her first instinct and decided to stick to the smaller roads and to stay away from the big cities. They already knew how difficult it had been to escape from that little village alive. So Santana didn't even want to think about how much harder, it had to be to survive going through a city. That was the main reason she had ended up deciding to take a much longer route to Minneapolis than was necessary, just to stay away from all the major cities. Santana knew that it would take them longer, but hopefully it would be a lot safer for them both.

She was folding the map back together, when Rachel suddenly turned around and looked at her. Santana immediately stopped what she was doing, because Rachel looked really scared. So Santana quickly turned her head and looked out the car window, fearing that she would be greeted with the sight of either Baker or Carter standing outside the car, but thankfully she didn't see anything out there that could have upset her. So Santana turned back to look at Rachel again.

"What is it?" Rachel was biting her bottom lip, before she hesitatingly asked.

"Do we have to go back the way we came from?"

It didn't take Santana long before she understood what Rachel was afraid of. She obviously wanted to know if they would risk meeting that group of assholes, that had killed Blaine and threatened to make the two of them their personal sex slaves again. Santana didn't look directly at Rachel, when she finally answered.

"No, we're taking another route, since they blocked that road." Then she quietly added under her breath. "You don't have to be afraid of those guys ever again." She quickly put the map away and was about to start the engine, when Rachel took a hold of her hand and stopped her from starting up the truck. Apparently she had heard what Santana had unintentionally muttered out.

"How do you know that?"

Even if Santana wasn't looking at Rachel, she could still hear the curiosity in her voice. When she didn't respond, Rachel immediately knew that Santana was still keeping something from her.

"SANTANA!" Santana snapped around and looked at a very displeased looking Rachel.

"I thought you were finished keeping secrets from me!" Santana reluctantly nodded and sighed.

"Yes, yes I am."

"Good! Then tell me what you're hiding!" Santana battled with herself, but finally gave in.

"Okay." She leaned back in her seat and let her gaze drift, to look at the seemingly peaceful nature outside the car.

"Remember that I told you that I didn't let Thompson push me into killing anyone, that was still human?" Santana didn't see it, but Rachel nodded her head. Santana exhaled.

"Well I lied. I did kill one guy." Santana braced herself for the inevitable moral lecture she would no doubt get from Rachel, but she was pleasantly surprised when all Rachel did was to ask her a question.

"When?"

"It was on that mission were we came home with all that stuff."

Rachel clearly remembered that mission, everyone had been so happy when the unit came back with the biggest score they had ever had. It was that night Santana had claimed her as her own, in front of her whole unit. It had been a good night, except from that stupid argument afterwards and Santana crying herself to sleep in her arms. Still that certainly explained why Santana had been so upset.

"What happened?" Santana still refused to look at Rachel, but she at least answered her question.

"Thompson had decided that we should look for supplies closer to that village we lived in, but for some reason we only found empty houses, someone had obviously beaten us to it. I unfortunately had a suspicion that it probably were those guys we met, but I decided to keep quiet about it. Unfortunately the next house we came to was that house that we stayed in, before we had to leave to find more food. I already knew that there wasn't anything of value inside, but I thought that the best thing was to keep my mouth shut. Thompson was so angry that yet another house turned out to be empty, that he threatened to send us all inside that village to get some supplies, that we could take back to the base. Even though he knew how dangerous it was to try to get supplies from more populated areas, because that always meant more zombies. I really didn't want to go back to that village, mostly because of all those zombies, but also since I obviously knew that Blaine and I had emptied almost every house already. We would be risking our lives for nothing and then Thompson would flip out, when he found out that almost every house had been robbed already. So I finally decided to tell Thompson everything I knew about those guys. After he heard my story, he decided that we should go to their house early the next day." Santana exhaled and rubbed her temples, like she was trying to get ride of an approaching headache.

"We surprised them while they were still sleeping in their beds. Some of the guys in my unit dragged them all out and lined them up, while the others and I went through the whole house and the outhouses to find their supplies. We found a lot of guns, ammo, food and other things that would be useful back at the base. Thompson and the rest of the unit were extremely pleased with the result. I on the other hand was petrified that Thompson would recruit those assholes into our unit, like Thompson had done with me. I obviously knew that those guys were even worse, than the guys that were already in our unit. I was probably on the verge of having a panic attack, but then Thompson beckoned me over to him and asked me which one of them it was that had killed my friend." Santana finally looked at Rachel, before she quickly looked away again.

"As you know I had already killed Steve, so of course I told him that. But before Thompson could respond, someone recognized me after hearing what we were talking about and shouted "Luke it's one of those girls that killed Carl, Steve and Taylor!" Which resulted in that Luke guy turning around to look at me and I instantly recognized him. It was that guy that ordered Steve to kill Blaine. Apparently he recognized me too and decided to throw every foul word he knew at me, for apparently unjustifiably killing three of his guys. He had obviously misread the situation, he and this guys were in. He probably thought that we were the good guys and that we had no intention of killing them, since we were from the U.S. army. He would probably have shut his mouth if he knew the truth, but he just kept going. He even told me every disgusting little thing he was planning on doing to me and you, when he got released. That was the moment Thompson leaned over and said "Shoot him." and I of course answered with a confused "What?" and he repeated "Shoot him!" I obviously hesitated. I had never killed anyone that wasn't directly threatening yours or my life before and I honestly didn't want to kill someone who couldn't even defend himself." Santana sighed in defeat.

"When I didn't do as Thompson told me to, he just looked at me and smiled "Do you want me to introduce him to Rachel, when we get back to the base? I bet he would love that, don't you?" I looked at him in shock, but he wasn't kidding. I knew that he wasn't kidding, because I knew what he was capably of. Thompson never made empty threats. So I didn't have to think about it, I just raised my gun and pointed it straight at Luke. He of course desperately tried to escape, when he understood that I was going to shoot him, but as you know I'm an excellent shooter so he didn't get far before I put a bullet in the back of his head. He died instantly. When their leader fell down to the ground, Luke's guys panicked and they all tried to get away, but the guys in my unit quickly got them and threw them into the truck to take them back to the base." Rachel had been sitting stock still in her seat, listening to the story in horror. At the last part of Santana's story, she looked a little puzzled and mumbled quietly.

"But I never saw any new guys in your unit."

"No you're right, Thompson never recruited anyone else, but at that moment I was terrified that he was taking them back to the base to let them join his unit. Luckily for us that wasn't the case. He only brought them back to the base to do experiments on them, to find out if they had found a working vaccine." Rachel looked shocked. Santana gave her a weak smile, before turning back to look out of the window again.

"We had this secret room in the back of the supply truck, were Thompson would smuggle in zombies or people to experiment on, because he didn't want the civilians at the base to know what they were doing. We actually weren't allowed to tell anyone outside the unit about the things we were doing." Santana glanced back at Rachel, before she averted her eyes again.

"But I know that I probably should have let you in, even if Thompson forbade me not to." Santana sighed.

"Anyway, on the drive back to the base, Thompson told me that he would never let those guys anywhere near his family or his units family and that also included us. He didn't trust them, especially after what I had told him. He knew what they were capable of and unlike his own guys, they would never have the same loyalty to him, so he couldn't trust them being around his family. He eventually told me that he thought it was necessary for me to kill Luke, because I needed to toughen up since I was too weak when it came to killing humans."

Rachel was seething in anger. She was sure that if Thompson had been there, she would have shot him down herself for treating Santana that way, but she found a strange comfort in looking down at the deserted base, thinking that he probably got what he deserved in the end.

"So that's why you don't have to be afraid of them anymore." Santana finished, before she finally looked straight at Rachel. It almost broke Rachel's heart to see how vulnerable Santana looked. So she quickly brought her in for a comforting hug, that Santana eagerly returned. When the hug ended, Rachel tried to reassure the other girl that she had done the right thing.

"You did what you had to do Santana. Thompson gave you no other choice. I know I probably should be ashamed of this, but I'm glad that those monsters are dead. They killed Blaine and who knows how many others they have killed before and after that. They were even going to make us their playthings. So they got what they deserved!" Rachel reached out and cradled Santana's face in her hands and looked straight into her eyes.

"You didn't do anything wrong! He would have died either way." Santana couldn't stop the tears from escaping and running down her cheeks.

"I'm so proud of you Santana. You kept us safe. You're the only reason we're still alive and I know that I can't say this enough, but thank you for saving my life every single time I have been in danger."

Rachel dried Santana's tears away and placed a tender kisses on both of Santana's cheeks, before she quickly sat back in her seat. Santana sniffed and mumbled out a quiet "Thank you." before she started the truck and steered the car towards Minneapolis. Rachel was in her own little world, staring out of the passenger side window, desperately trying to figure out why she had this overwhelming desire to keep on kissing Santana. She was so confused, but Rachel soon forgot all about it when the cars movements lolled her to sleep.

Maybe it was a good thing that Rachel had been so distracted, because as Santana started the engine and backed away from the hill-top, Santana could have sworn that she saw a car approaching the west gate of the base. Since the gate was so far away, Santana didn't know if she was just imagining the whole thing, but as they drove down the hill she was almost certain that whoever was driving the car suddenly stopped, before quickly getting out of the car. Even if there were no chance that Santana could actually see anything that far away without her binoculars, she still had a horrible feeling that they were being watched, till they finally got shielded by the surrounding forest.

For the rest of the ride, Santana was worriedly checking her rear view mirror, just to make sure they weren't being followed. When the hours slowly started ticking by and Santana still couldn't see anyone, she ended up convincing herself that she must have imagined the whole thing. So she finally let it go and tried to relax, because she knew that she needed to concentrate on getting them safely to their destination. Santana briefly glanced over at the still peacefully sleeping girl beside her and sighed. She really hoped that Minneapolis would turn out to be the safe place she was looking for, so she could finally keep Rachel safely away from the nightmare they had been forced to live in.


	25. Chapter 25

******Warning for chapter 25: **Violence and Cursing

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 25 **

When Rachel woke up several hours later, she found herself sitting alone in an empty car, which was currently standing in front of a dark house. Outside the car, the sun was already setting and Rachel immediately started to panic when she couldn't see Santana anywhere. She didn't know if she was supposed to stay in the car and wait, or if she should go look for Santana. What if something had happened to her, or maybe she needed help? It didn't take long before Rachel was completely freaking out and she hurriedly started to look for her gun. After some frantic searching, Rachel squealed in triumph when she finally located it, laying safely inside of her backpack. She was just about to turn around to look up at the house again, when the driver door suddenly swung open. Rachel jumped so high in surprise, that she almost banged her head on the car roof, but she managed to collected herself again and quickly aimed her gun straight at the intruder.

"Stop pointing your gun at me Berry! That thing is loaded!" Rachel immediately tossed the gun down to the floor of the car and then proceeded to hug the crap out of Santana.

"Okay, OKAY! Stop that! We need to get inside, before the sun goes down." Rachel finally released Santana from her death grip and looked up at the house, a little apprehensively. It didn't go unnoticed by Santana, who was rubbing her sore ribs after Rachel's surprisingly strong bear hug.

"Relax, I have checked the place out. There's nobody home. Now hurry up! Grab your stuff and let's get inside." They quickly grabbed what they needed and walked inside the empty house. Rachel looked around the rather spacious living room and was about to ask Santana what they were doing there, when Santana beat her to it.

"I was getting tired and I didn't want us to end up driving off the road, just because I managed to fall asleep behind the wheel. So I figured that the best thing was to start looking for an empty house, that we could sleep in for the night. I thankfully learned how to spot an abandoned house, when I had to clean out houses for Thompson. This one had no car outside, no curtains were covering the windows, no lights were on and no smoke was coming up from the chimney. Plus there were no footprints outside in the snow. So I checked the rest of the property out, before I tried to knock on the front door. When nobody answered, I decided to take a chance and broke in. I have secured the whole house and there's no zombies or humans, so we're going to stay here for the night." Rachel nodded and watched as Santana close all the curtains, before she tried to turn on the lights, but apparently this house had no electricity. So Santana fished out some candles from her backpack and lighted them instead.

Santana knew that they had to be careful, because they could never know for sure if there could be other survivors traveling by. If they happened to see light coming from inside this house, they could get tempted to break in. Santana certainly didn't want that to happen. Especially since she on top of worrying about possible intruders, still was trying to convince herself that there was no chance, that they could have been followed by that car that she might or might not have seen back at the base, but unfortunately she hadn't been able to shake that awful feeling she had gotten, after they started driving away from the base. Either way they still had to be careful, because they had already experienced what some humans were capable of doing to survive after the outbreak. Santana actually worried more about bumping into people, than she worried about the zombies roaming around somewhere outside in the dark.

It didn't take the two girls long to fix themselves something easy to eat, before Santana decided that they needed to head upstairs to get some sleep. She wanted to get an early start the next morning. Even if there were two separate beds in the bedroom Santana had chosen, they still ended up sleeping in the same bed. It had by now become more of a routine for the two girls to sleep in the same bed, than it was out of necessity. Most of the times one of them ended up spooning the other one, but neither of them complained about their sleeping arrangement.

Santana and Rachel had never talked about it, when it had happened for the first time after Finn's death. They had just continued with it, like it was something that almost instantly became natural for the two of them to do. Neither one of them dared to bring it up, in fear of ruining it. They both felt that this was something they needed, after they had both lost the people they loved. This time it was Santana that shuffled closer and draped her arm around Rachel's waist and dragged her closer to herself.

Rachel sighed in contentment, when she felt Santana's body so close to hers. She always felt so much safer, when Santana would hold her like this. For the most parts Santana only let Rachel hold her, when she had ended up having a breakdowns after returning from one of her missions outside the base, or that week she had been so catatonic that she hadn't reacted to anything Rachel had done to her. The first time Santana let Rachel hold her, it had been an entirely new experience for Rachel. She hadn't been used to being the big spoon, since Finn had always held her, but if she was completely honest with herself, she really didn't mind doing that with Santana. It was actually a rather nice feeling. Still Rachel had to admit that she preferred to be held, since that usually meant that Santana wasn't breaking down in her arms. So even if Rachel had slept in the car, she felt so safe and warm in Santana's embrace, that she quickly fell back to sleep.

* * *

Early the next day they continued their journey to Minneapolis, after a quick breakfast. Luckily for the two of them, Santana had managed to gather more than enough food to last them for several weeks, so they didn't have to stop to find more. Rachel was happy about that since she, for the first time, finally got to see how much destruction the outbreak had brought with it. As Santana drove, she could see through the passenger side window, as they passed by shockingly many corpses laying in the streets with blood and guts smeared everywhere, damaged or abandoned cars, burnt down buildings and numerous warning signs, most of which told them to run or turn back. It was complete mayhem.

Still the thing that scared Rachel the most was that she never saw any humans, only zombies which always tried to chase after the car when they drove past them. The whole thing was like a horrible nightmare coming to life. After a while Rachel had to stop looking at it, to prevent herself from going insane. So instead she tried to focus on Santana, which was the reason she suddenly noticed that Santana regularly glanced up at the back view mirror, like she was afraid that someone was following them. Rachel however couldn't understand why she would be so anxious about that, because they hadn't seen any living being since they had been forced to flee the base. Still it was good to know that Santana was keeping an eye out, for any possible danger they might be facing. It certainly made Rachel feel a lot safer.

After their latest stop to fill up the car with more fuel, from one of the gas cans Santana and Grimes had managed to smuggle out of the base. Rachel noticed that Santana looked a little worried, when she came back inside the car. It made Rachel's heart do a little jump in fear.

"What's wrong?" Santana looked up at her in concern.

"We need more fuel. We're apparently using more fuel, than that car we were originally going to drive with. Tom have obviously calculated that we didn't need more than we have with us to get us safely to our destination, but this military car apparently consumes a lot more gas than a regular car. So we need to find more or we won't make it to Minneapolis. " That certainly didn't help Rachel's heartbeat slow down. This had to be really bad news.

"What can we do about it?" Rachel voice trembled in fear. Santana furrowed her brows.

"We either have to try to steal some fuel from one of the abandoned cars, or we have to try to fill at a gas station. I have the equipment to siphon gas, but it's pretty risky if there's any zombies nearby. So I think we'll just drive for a little while longer, since the tank is full. In the meantime we can see if we can spot a gas stations first, hopefully we'll find one where there's some fuel left. So if we're lucky, we won't get forced to try to pump up gas from an abandoned car." Santana didn't wait for a reply from Rachel and started the car. Rachel didn't say a word, but she was silently starting to freak out over the prospect, of them having to step outside of the car to go in search of more fuel to get them safely to Minneapolis.

Santana had been driving for almost an hour, when they finally came to an abandoned gas station. She quickly instructed Rachel to keep watch, while she tried the first gas pumps to find out if one of them had any fuel left for their car.

Rachel's heart started beating faster, when the first gas pump was empty. There were only two pumps, so the odds was rather meager. Rachel held her breath in anticipation, when Santana tried the last one. She almost started laughing when Santana started doing a happy dance in joy, when fuel suddenly poured out from the second pump.

Santana quickly filled the truck and the extra gas cans they had with them. She was filling the last one, when Rachel suddenly noticed something moving towards them in the distance. Rachel quickly exited the truck, to alert Santana about the possible treat. It didn't take long before they could make out, that it was a group of zombies that was coming towards them.

"Get inside the car!" Rachel was about to run to get into the passenger side, when Santana stopped her.

"On the driver side, you'll have to drive." Rachel had never driven a military car before, so she really didn't understand why Santana wanted her to drive, but she still hurried back to the driver side.

Santana quickly filled up the last can, before she fixed the remaining hoses to keep pumping out gas. Rachel briefly wondered what Santana was trying to do, but she didn't have time to question it before Santana jumped back inside the car with the gas can. She quickly rolled down the passenger side window and instructed Rachel to "Drive, but not too fast." Rachel complied and was baffled to see that Santana was poring gas out of the window, as they were slowly driving away from the gas station. Not long after, Santana asked Rachel to stop and then she jumped out of the car.

Rachel was for a moment a little bit scared that Santana had finally gone insane, because she was just standing there waiting for the zombies to come. When the rather large group had almost reached the gas station, Rachel was about to ask her what she was waiting for, but then Santana suddenly pulled something out of her uniform pocket. Rachel barley got a glimpse of the lighter in Santana's hand, before she quickly threw the whole thing down to the ground. Rachel almost jumped out of her seat when the fuel, that Santana had poured on the ground, suddenly ignited. The fire quickly found its way to the abandoned gas station and when it reached the gas pumps, the whole gas station blew up and engulfed all the zombies in flames.

Rachel almost didn't hear Santana laugh in triumph and shout out "Fuck Yeah!" because her ears were ringing from the immense explosion. Santana jumped back inside the car with a huge grin on her face and Rachel quickly started to drive away from the burning inferno behind them. She had felt the warmth from the fire, even from inside of the car, so she thought it was best to get as fast as possible away from it. She didn't look at Santana when she asked.

"Was that really necessary?" Santana only shrugged her shoulders.

"Well yeah why not. I'm not going back there ever again and hopefully I just helped the world get rid of some more zombies. Win, win if you ask me."

Rachel shook her head, but secretly smiled because Santana was babbling enthusiastically about how cool that explosion had been and how it was just like in the movies. She really didn't want to ruin Santana's good mood, by being mad about her behavior. However she was still a little bit worried about the fact that Santana had used some of their extra fuel so stupidly, but when Santana told her that they had more than enough to get to Minneapolis, she finally calmed down and just enjoyed Santana's giddiness.

When Santana's adrenaline buzz had finally subsided, she started to look for an empty house for them to stay in for the night. It didn't take long before she found one that looked promising. Rachel drove up to the house, where Santana told her to stay in the car, no matter what happened. Before she exited the car and carefully started checking out the house. When she didn't see any signs of life inside, after looking through most of the windows, she finally walked up to the front door and knocked. She had her gun ready and pointing at the door, in case of any trouble, but when nobody answered Santana lowered her gun and walked to the backside of the house, where Rachel lost sight of her.

When Santana hadn't return after ten minutes, Rachel was getting a little bit anxious. It certainly didn't help her calm down, when the next thing she heard was two gunshot from inside the house. Her first instinct was to bolt out of the car to run inside the house and check on Santana, but Rachel stopped, with her hand on the door opener, when she remembered that Santana had told her to stay in the car no matter what happened. The wait was almost unbearable and her heart jumped in fear when the front door suddenly swung open. Rachel desperately clutched the gun in her hands tighter and her heart was beating a mile a minute, but when Santana finally emerged from the open door unharmed, Rachel's heart did a little dance in joy.

Santana quickly walked over to the car and told Rachel to drive it to the backside of the house, so nobody could see it from the main road. Rachel did as she was told and parked the car at the back. The first thing she was greeted with, when she exited the car, was two zombies laying dead on the ground. Judging by the blood trail leading from the back door, Rachel guessed that Santana had dragged them out of the house after shooting them. Santana didn't say anything about it and just opened the backdoor of the car to get their things. When they were finally safely inside the house, Santana told Rachel to stay away from two of the bedrooms. Rachel found it wise to not ask why. She knew that when Santana told her that she didn't want to know, that the truth was that she really didn't want to know, but she had still made Santana promise to tell her the truth if it was necessary. So Rachel decided to not question her about it, since Santana usually didn't like to talk about it anyway.

Even if Rachel never found out what it was that Santana was hiding behind those two door, she was still relived when they finally left the house the next day. She had unfortunately seen the family portrait, hanging in the living room, of a happy family of five. Two of which she had already seen laying outside, but the faith of those three beautiful smiling kids standing beside their two proud parents, was something Rachel could only speculate about. Sadly her mind only managed to come up with the tragic conclusion, that the answer was hiding behind those two closed doors and nothing she could try to think of gave any of them a happy ending. So she was truly relived to get back inside the car again. Thankfully it wasn't far left to Minneapolis.

* * *

Santana had hoped that they would manage to get to Minneapolis before it got dark, but they were unexpectedly forced to take a detour, when they came to a roadblock made up by wrecked cars. At first Santana was contemplating trying to push some of the cars away to get past them, but after what had happened the last time they had come across an accident, she quickly decided to use the car horn to check if there really wasn't any zombies nearby. It proved to be a smart decision, when a group of zombies suddenly emerged from the wreckage and immediately ran towards the car. Santana quickly put the car in reverse, as the group chase after the car. At the first chance Santana got, she hurriedly spun the car around and quickly drove away from the approaching zombies. When they found themselves safely away from the accident site, Santana stopped the car, before she snapped the map out of Rachel's shaking hands. She quickly started to look through it, to find an alternative route to Minneapolis. The new road took them a little bit longer, but they luckily didn't encounter more roadblocks.

On the last stage of their journey, they were forced to drive on the highway leading into Minneapolis. They were both a little bit anxious to see if there had been any accidents, since that road would have had a lot more panicked drivers trying to get out of the city after the outbreak. If there had been any major crashes and they ended up being stopped by yet another roadblock, it would most likely force them to turn back around. If that was the case, than they would end up having to take an even longer detour to get into Minneapolis. Which obviously would mean that they wouldn't have enough fuel left to reach the city in time. Santana really hoped that they didn't have to try to find more, because she was pretty sure that Rachel would give her a several hours long lecture about not wasting fuel, just because she had unnecessary blown up that gas station with the help of one of their extra gas cans, that obviously would have helped them if they were forced to take a new detour. So when Santana finally pulled into the highway, both girls felt their heart beat pick up in fear of what they possibly were going to be faced with.

From the moment they turned into the highway, it was pretty clear that there had been several accidents on that road, but it strangely enough looked like the cars had been cleared away from most of the lanes. Both girls took that as a good sign and they both smiled when they could finally see the vague outline of the city of Minneapolis in the far distance. When they came a little bit closer, they could clearly see that someone had built a large wall around the city, mostly likely to keep the zombies out. However before they came that far, the highway was suddenly blocked by a barrier stretching across all the lanes, that were leading in and out of the city.

To Santana it looked like the military had constructed a high barbed wire fence, that stretched across from one side of the highway to the other. Behind the barrier there were two watchtowers and a military building. So Santana stopped the car, at a safe distance from the gate. When she killed the engine, she noticed that the two guards up in the towers, immediately signalizing to the guards on the ground that they had company outside the fence. It didn't take long before a little group of armed soldiers came marching out to greet them, with their guns raised pointing directly at Santana and Rachel, sitting helplessly inside the car.


	26. Chapter 26

******Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee

This story is unbeta'd and my first language isn't English

* * *

**Chapter 26**

One of the military guards signaled for Santana and Rachel to get out of the car. Santana wisely chose to leave her gun behind, but instead she quickly picked up her military credentials, that Thompson had given her for being accepted into his unit. Santana knew that it probably hadn't been out of kindness that he had given it to her, but more likely because he wanted her to use them to fool those poor unsuspecting people, they always ended up robbing blind. Santana just hoped that those credentials, for the first time, could finally be used for something good. To be honest she had no idea if they would be worth anything, or if they were even authentic. Nonetheless she still hoped they could be of help with getting her and Rachel on the right side of that military fence and into safety. Santana carefully stepped out of the car, but told Rachel to stay put. Before she slowly walked towards the group of soldiers, holding her credentials out in front of her.

The minute Santana emerged from behind the open car door, she noticed that most of the soldiers quickly looked at each other and a few of them even seemed to relax a little bit. Santana guessed it was because of her U.S. Army uniform, that she had opted to wear today in hopes of being taken for a real army soldier. Santana only managed to take a few steps towards the group, before she was ordered to stop. Santana obediently did as they told her to.

The guy standing closest to Santana quickly walked up to her and took all her military papers from her, before he hurried back and handed everything to his superior. The rest of the group was still pointing their guns at Santana and Rachel. So even if it had seemed like Santana's uniform had helped, it still looked like most of the soldiers were afraid that the two of them would do something dangerous, or maybe they were just concerned about the fact that Rachel and Santana could be infected. The man who received Santana's papers looked at her, after reading them.

"So you're from California, Lieutenant Lopez?"

"Yes, sir!"

Thompson had given Santana the Lieutenant grade, because he had thought that she was the best shooter in his unit. Some of his guys had murmured and complained a little bit about it behind her back, but most of them had stopped whining like little girls, after she had saved their lives on multiple occasions. It trilled Santana that it seemed like the man in front of her, who was holding her bogus papers, was actually buying it. He actually thought that she was in the army. She just hoped that he believed it long enough to get them into the city, before anyone figured out that her grade was a fake.

"Since you're in the army Lieutenant, you probably know that we have to be extremely careful about who we let past these gates. So we're going to escort you and your friend to that building." He turned around and pointed at the military building behind the open gate, something that made Santana's heart do a flip in excitement.

"Where you'll have to strip down in front of one of our female soldiers, so she can check that neither of you have been bitten. If she gives you the all clear than I need to do a debriefing of you, before we can let you inside the city where you'll be given a place to stay for the night. Is this clear Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good. Signal for your friend to join us. Some of my soldiers will take care of the car. You will get your things back, if they get checked out as safe."

"Yes sir!" Santana quickly turned around and motioned for Rachel to come out.

When Rachel hesitatingly walked up to Santana's side, they were immediately surrounded by four soldiers, who swiftly escorted the two girls, still with their guns pointing at them, inside the building. The second the little group entered the hallway, two female soldiers stepped forward and directed them to an empty room. Where Santana and Rachel had to strip out of their clothes in front of them, still with a gun pointed straight at them by one of their monitors, but when both of them got the all clear, the gun finally got lowered.

After they had been checked out as safe, all of the soldiers inside the building quickly gathered around them, mostly to congratulated Lieutenant Lopez on surviving the trip from California. Apparently they were all really impressed about the fact that the Lieutenant had made it to Minneapolis, without being bitten or killed and at the same time been able to take care of a civilian, which was a huge safety hazard in their opinion. Santana wondered if they would have been as enthusiastic, if they knew that she was just a civilian, because they didn't seem to care about Rachel at all.

If Santana had looked to her left, she would have seen a rather displeased looking Rachel, who was intently staring at the two female soldiers, that apparently couldn't seem to keep their hands off Santana. Something Rachel found to be really unprofessional behavior, from someone who was supposed to be on duty. It probably didn't help the matter that it was the same two girls, that had seen Santana naked just a few minutes ago. It wasn't like Rachel was blind, because she had clearly seen how those two had almost devoured Santana's naked, firm and toned body standing in front of them. Not that Rachel had looked at it too, she was just looking out for Santana. In her opinion Santana could do so much better, than those two blonde bimbos that were currently hanging all over her.

Rachel had really hoped that coming to Minneapolis would mean a new start for her and Santana, but right now it looked as if it would be just like it had been back at the base in San Francisco. Everyone loving Santana and no one even caring a little bit about her. To Rachel it almost felt like she had been transported back to High School, where she was the bottom of the barrel and everyone else choosing to ignore her if they could. At least Santana still seemed to be as popular, as she had been back in High School. Rachel was just happy that at least Santana was no longer ignoring her, like she had done back then. It made Rachel smile, when she thought about how much their friendship had grown since they had graduated from McKinley. She was really thankful that she had ended up with such a good friend, as Santana had proven to be. Rachel was snapped out of her dream state, when she heard someone calling Santana's name.

Santana was relived, when someone finally made all those pushy soldiers backed away from. Apparently it was that guy again, that wanted to debrief her. Santana wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but so far he had seemed like decent enough. He was even kind enough to ask her, if it was okay for her friend to wait in the lounge while the two of them talked. Santana quickly glanced at Rachel, before she worriedly looked back at the man in front of her.

"She will be safe there Sir?" He smiled at her.

"Yes she will. Nothing will happen to her, you have my word. I'll even let two of my soldiers guard her, till we're finished." Santana nodded. She really hoped that she could trust this guy, more than Thompson.

He quickly signaled for two of his female soldiers, the same two that Rachel instantly had seemed to love, to take care of Rachel. Santana directed all her attention towards Rachel.

"You'll be fine right?" Rachel looked a little bit anxious, but nodded anyway. Santana gave her a reassuring smile, before she quickly leaned forward and gave Rachel a brief hug. Then she followed after the man in charge to his office.

* * *

"Have a seat Lieutenant."

Santana complied and sat down in one of the two empty chairs in front of the large wooden desk, that apparently belonged to Captain John Williams. Santana guessed that the man in front of her was said Williams, who was currently silently typing on his computer. After a while he furrowed his brows and looked back at Santana. Before he once again picked up her Lieutenant identification card, the same card that Santana had often been forced to use to deceive unsuspecting house owners to lower their guard, so she could take over their property without any bloodshed.

"I know for a fact that this is nearly impossible to get a hold of and even harder to fake. So would you Lieutenant Lopez care to enlighten me, as to why you're not even listed in Captain Thompson's unit at all? Because the only Lieutenant Lopez I found, is a forty-five year old male from Louisiana. Unless you're extremely talented in disguising yourself, I highly doubt that you're him." Williams was staring at her, with a stern look on his face.

Santana had been afraid of this. She had hoped that maybe all the military records had been lost because of the outbreak, so she didn't have to explain, but right now that seemed a little bit naive to have hoped for. So she quickly decided to come clean and she told Williams everything that had happened to her, after she met Captain Thompson and how she had "earned" her Lieutenant tittle. When she had finally finished her story, almost an hour later, Williams nodded his head in understanding.

"Okay. We already knew that some of the military units, that had survived the outbreak, had gone rogue. I'm really sorry that Captain Thompson violated his position for his own good and forced you to do his bidding. We do not under any circumstances tolerate that kind of behavior, even in a situation so extreme as this one." He leaned closer to his desk and Santana could see the sympathy in his eyes .

"I promise that you will not be charged with helping him, because you were clearly trying to survive and take care of your friend." Then Williams quietly leaned back in his office chair, where he sat for a while just staring at Santana. The way he was looking at her, made the hair on the back of Santana's neck stand up. When Williams quickly glanced at his computer, before he looked Santana straight in her eyes, Santana already had a bad feeling and she was prepared for the worst.

"I have to be honest with you Santana, many of the surviving soldiers either ran away, got killed or infected by the soldiers that turned. Since we have so few soldiers left, we really need all the help we can get. I believe that Captain Thompson wouldn't have made you a Lieutenant, if he didn't think that you had what it took to be in the U.S. Army. Therefor I would like to test your abilities as a soldier Lopez." Santana felt her heart drop and she was about to protest, because she really didn't want to go through that again, but Williams quickly stopped her.

"Before you decline you should know that, if we decide that you're capable enough to be in our unit, you will get a lot more privileges than the normal citizen in this town gets. You'll among other get better housing and better food. So just think about it, before you decline." He then pushed a button on his desk.

It didn't take long before Rachel was guided inside the office, by one of the female soldiers, who discretely winked at Santana. Something that made Rachel clench her teeth together in anger. When Rachel sat down beside Santana, Williams immediately started questioning Rachel about her name, before he turned to check it out on his computer.

In the meantime Santana was just sitting there in her own little world, quietly thinking. She felt like she was having some sort of freaky déjà vu, because this all felt a little too much like the talk she had with Thompson. She really hoped that Minneapolis wouldn't end up, being just like what she had been forced to go through back at the base in San Francisco. She was wondering if Williams would force her to join, if she tried to decline. Or if he had the authority to kick them out of Minneapolis, for refusing to cooperate. Santana obviously hadn't been paying attention to the conversation between Rachel and Williams, but snapped back in when she heard him telling Rachel.

"...unfortunately I can't promise that you and Lopez gets to live together. Only spouses are guaranteed that, but you can make a request about it to the main office. If you're lucky enough to get your application approved than you can live together, but you have to be patient because you will probably not get a reply from them in over a month. I highly doubt that this request will be considered an important case to them, since they have a lot of more urgent things to take care of after the outbreak." Santana could instantly see the fear in Rachel's eyes, when she suddenly realized that the two of them would be separated. Before Santana could think about what she was doing, she blurted out.

"But we're married!" Rachel looked at her in disbelief and quietly asked.

"We are?" She quickly changed it to "Yes we're married!" when Santana discreetly kicked her in the foot and gave her a glare.

Williams had been rifling through some papers, to find a form to give Rachel, so she could apply for shared housing. So he luckily hadn't noticed Rachel's little slip up. He looked up at them, when he heard Rachel confirm that she and Santana were married.

"You're married? The computer didn't say anything about that." He quickly turned to look at the screen, like it would suddenly tell him that it had told him a lie.

Rachel was scowling at Santana and gave her a "What the fuck is going on!" look, Santana briefly wondered where she had learned that, but she chose to ignore Rachel's questioning stare. Instead she quickly came up with a plan, that she was determined to make sure would work, because there were no way she and Rachel was going to get separated. To be honest Santana didn't even know if she would be capable of living without Rachel anymore, but either way she had already made up her mind, so she wasn't going to find out the answer to that question. She would rather leave Minneapolis, than see that happen to the two of them. Santana smiled back at Williams.

"It's probably because we got married the day the outbreak started. We had just left the church and were attending the reception, when those monsters attacked us. My wife and I barely got out of there alive, but I unfortunately witnessed that the minister that had married us got bitten. You see we had out of courtesy invited him there, because he was an old family friend of my papá. So he obviously never got the chance to register into the system, that the two of us had gotten married, before he died." Santana tried to look as devastated as she could, for the dead man that she had just made up. Then she looked at Williams in an apologetic manner.

"We could have shown you our rings, if we hadn't been forced to trade them for food. Which is a shame, because you really should have seen my wife's ring. I got her an eight carat diamond ring, because only the best is good enough for my Baby." Santana gave Williams her most dazzling smile, before she turned towards Rachel and gave her a quick kiss. She was just trying to make the story as believable as possible. She quickly turned back to look at the man, that was holding their future in his hands. Apparently her acting had been convincing enough to fool him, because Williams nodded his head.

"Yes of course, that would probably explain it. Everything was so chaotic after the outbreak. So if the minister died, then there's no wonder that your marriage didn't get registered. I guess you wouldn't have any papers with you, that confirms that your married?" Santana shook her head and quickly grabbed Rachel's hand and brought it up to her mouth and kissed it affectionately, before bringing their joint hands to her heart.

"Like I said we barely got away with our lives. All I could think about was to get my wife out of there. Neither of us were thinking about saving a piece of paper."

"That is understandable. Well I probably shouldn't be doing this, since I have no official documentation, but I'm going to register you as married in the system. This will entail that you get to live together and if you later decide to join our unit in Minneapolis, your wife will also get some benefits."

Rachel, who had been sitting there in disbelief the whole time, not being a great help in selling Santana's story. Finally snapped out of her shocked state, when she heard the part about Santana joining the army again. She really didn't like the sound of that. So she desperately tried to get Santana to look at her, but she was still talking to Williams about their supposed marriage.

"So her name is Rachel Lopez? Because she told me it was Berry." Williams asked, he sounded a little suspicious.

"Yes, Berry is her maiden name. I figured that it probably was best to pretend that we weren't married, because you never know if the people you talk to are against or pro gay marriage. I didn't want to get us kicked out, if the policy here was against it." Williams nodded his head in understanding, because he had already heard some of the more extreme survivors views. Where some of them had even tried to blame the whole outbreak on everything from aliens landing and taking over their bodies, to homosexuality being the cause of the unknown virus, alongside a lot of other ridicules ideas. So he could understand why Santana had wanted to hide their marriage.

Rachel on the other hand was about to protest, when Santana told Williams that her name was Lopez. Because she had worked hard for people to recognize her as "Rachel Berry – The Broadway Star!" but quickly shut her mouth when she remembered that her career on Broadway was as dead, as probably most of her friends and family were. So it really didn't matter what her last name was anymore. The most important thing now was to make sure that Santana and her weren't separated and that was clearly what Santana was trying to prevent. So she was obviously not going to destroy that by being a diva and holding on to her name. It probably should mean something, that she didn't care that she now had Santana's last name, but had blatantly refused to even consider taking Finn's last name, when they had been talking about getting married. However Rachel quickly decided not to dwell on that part and tuned back into the ongoing conversation.

"You will for the moment get a room in the part of town, that is reserved for the regular civilians. Tomorrow after we have checked if you're qualify to get recruited into our army and if you accept, you'll get a better living arrangement. However if you don't qualify or choose to decline my offer to join, we'll have to find another job for you both." Williams turned and looked at Rachel.

"Everyone living in Minneapolis have to work for the city to get a place to live, their rationed food and other necessary supplies." Williams was looking at the two of them, like he was waiting for them to agree. So both Rachel and Santana nodded their heads in understandingt. He smiled

"It probably has been a long day for the both of you, so I'll get two of my soldiers to escort you to your room." Then he focused all his attention back on Santana.

"I'll send someone to pick you up for your test tomorrow miss Lopez and then we'll talk more after we know how it went." He then bid them good night. Before the two female soldiers, that Rachel had grown so fond of, escorted Santana and Rachel into the city and to their new home.

* * *

Rachel was patiently waiting as the two female soldiers, that were apparently named Amy and Amber, something that certainly hadn't made Rachel roll her eyes, finished saying their goodbyes to Santana and completely ignoring her. It almost seemed to Rachel like they were purposely disregarding her presence, even if she was standing right beside the object of their affection. If it hadn't been for them being called back to headquarters, Rachel was almost sure they would have been standing outside that door for the rest of the night, with those two skanks still shamelessly flirting with Santana. Not that Rachel cared, but it had been a long day and all she wanted to do was to curl up with Santana in a warm bed and forget about everything that had happened, at least for a little while. So that was obviously the only reason she felt like celebrating, when those two awful girls finally left them alone. Even though her mood may have been unintentionally dampened, by the fact that Santana was obviously checking those two girls out, when they finally turned around and walked away giggling like little school girls, with an exaggerated sway in their hips like they knew Santana would be watching them leave. When Santana finally looked back at her, Rachel quickly averted her eyes towards the door and quickly opened it, before she hurriedly stepping inside the room that they had been assigned.

Rachel froze the second she walked over the threshold and Santana had to push past her to get a look. They were both quietly taking in the run down room, that might be their permanent new home. Santana was the first one to speak.

"I'm joining their unit tomorrow, if they'll accept me." Rachel started to protest rather weakly.

"But-"

"Rachel, we can't live like this!"

Santana gestured to the dirty and run down floor, ceiling, walls and beds. It honestly looked and smelled more like an outhouse, than a room someone was supposed to sleep in. Rachel didn't know what to say. She didn't want to live her either, but she really didn't want Santana to risk her life, only so they could get a better place to stay.

"We'll get used to it. It will probably be a lot better, when it's cleaned." She desperately tried to convince the both of them. Santana laughed.

"Good try Berry, but I'm not buying it. You don't want to live here either."

"But I don't want you to go out there again Santana. I don't want you to die!" Santana could hear the desperation in Rachel's voice and sighed.

"We have no other choice Rachel. I refuse to live the rest of my life in this dump!"

Rachel really tried, but she still couldn't stop the tears from falling. She had really hoped that when they reached Minneapolis, she could finally stop worrying about if Santana was going to return to her alive after one of her missions. She had constantly been scared that Thompson's unit would come back and tell her that Santana had died. Her greatest fear had for so long been to be left alone, still alive without Santana by her side. So she had really been looking forward to not having to be scared of losing Santana, but right now she knew that her dream had been crushed once again. Santana instantly hurried to Rachel side, when she started crying and embraced her.

"Hey, hey don't cry. You know I always do my best to come back to you. I refuse to drop dead from anything other than old age, you know that." She was trying to make Rachel smile, but it only got her to cry harder.

"It would take more than some stupid zombies, for me to leave my wife." Santana joked. That actually made Rachel laugh and Santana dried away her tears. Rachel sniffled a little, before looking up at Santana.

"Yeah, what was that all about? First I'm your girlfriend and now I'm your wife. I don't seem to recall ever getting the invitation to that wedding." Santana smiled back at her.

"Me neither, it must have gotten lost in the mail." But then her smile faded and her posture got more serious, before Santana looked deep into Rachel's eyes.

"I couldn't let him separate us like that. We have been through too much together, to lose each other now." Rachel could for a brief moment see the vulnerability, that Santana always tried so desperately to hide away from her, shine in her eyes. Before Santana quickly looked down to the dirty floor.

"I hope you're not too mad about it. I know how much your name means to you, but it sounded more reliable if one of us had taken the other ones name." Then she quickly looked up at Rachel again and smiled.

"So it had to be you, because I'm too badass to take anyone's name." Rachel laughed.

"Yes, you truly are." She smiled affectionately back at Santana.

"No, I'm not mad at you. Maybe at first, but when I figured out what you were trying to do, it was okay. My time as Rachel Berry is over anyway. I highly doubt that Broadway will ever be opened again. So I'm okay with being Rachel Lopez." Rachel's smile slowly faded away, as she spoke about her life long dream. Santana wanted to tell her that it would be okay, but she knew that Rachel probably was right. So she opted to give her a tight hug instead, before she mumbled out.

"You really shouldn't be worrying, about the possibility of me joining the army again, before tomorrow. For all we know Williams might decide that I'm not good enough, so maybe we'll just have to stay here." Rachel gave her a hollow laugh.

"We both know that's never going to happen. He'll be lucky to have you in his unit." Santana smiled and let go of Rachel, before triumphantly raised her hands in victory.

"Yeah you're right, I'm awesome!" Rachel playfully swatted Santana's shoulder, when she lowered her hands again, for being so cocky.

"Ouch! Marital abuse! I would never have married you, if I knew that you would start beating me." Santana tried to stay serious, but failed miserably and they both started laughing.

* * *

Santana and Rachel were both so tired after the early start that day, that they quickly decided to go to bed. Even if there once again were two beds in the room, they still ended up in the same bed, since Santana claimed that she had seen a blood stain on the other one. However Rachel was still convinced that it was only a little bit of dirt, but she obviously didn't complain about the arrangement, since she always slept better when Santana held her in her arms. It didn't take them long before they both fell asleep.


End file.
